The management of patients with premature rupture of membranes (PROM) poses one of the most serious dilemmas in obstetrics since PROM significantly increases the likelihood of prematurity and serious perinatal infection. Early infection is not reliably predicted nor detected by standard laboratory parameters. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were assayed along with white blood cell count, differential, and temperature course in patients with PROM and controls. Elevated CRP very accurately divided patients with evidence of infectious morbidity from those without such evidence (p