The clinical utility of this test is obvious: women who are seen for evaluation of possible preterm labor and cervical dilatation < 3 cm may be secondarily screened with the fetal fibronectin determination, with those testing positive admitted for additional observation and treatment. Our data suggest that patients with a nega- tive test may safely be observed in the outpatient setting for at least 7 days. We believe the fetal fibronectin assay has great potential to improve the clinician’s ability to select patients for tocolytic drug therapy and to reduce the number of women who receive such treatment unnecessarily.