Latency of 96 hours was adopted as a criterion for the study because the median maternal blood levels of various inflammatory markers (i.e., IL-6, G-CSF, CRP, and WBC) were significantly higher in the HCA group than in the non-HCA group for up to the 3 days preceding delivery in women with PPROM [41, 73, 74] and the number of PPROM women who delivered within 72 hours after plasma sampling was too small in our dataset to warrant analysis. Here, IL6 is linked to preterm premature rupture of the membranes.