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Influence of maternal systemic lupus erythematosus on first-trimester combined screening for chromosomal
J Heinig1, J Steinhard, R Schmitz
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. heining@uni-muenster.de
Objective:
To explore the effect of maternal systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) on first-trimester screening markers for Down syndrome.
Methods:
A retrospective study was conducted on 1150 normal singleton fetuses that underwent first-trimester combined screening for Down syndrome. Fetal delta nuchal translucency (NT), maternal serum PAPP-A and free beta-hCG were compared between pregnancies with SLE (n = 10) and without preexisting maternal disease (n = 1140).
Results:
The medians +/- SD for delta NT, log(10) MoM of PAPP-A and free beta-hCG +/- SD in pregnancies with SLE and without maternal disease were - 0.18 +/- 0.29 versus - 0.18 +/- 0.33, 0.005 +/- 0.32 versus 0.02 +/- 0.26, and 0.22 +/- 0.19 versus - 0.014 +/- 0.28, with a p value of 0.7, 0.98 and 0.03, respectively.
Conclusions:
Patients with preexisting SLE have increased maternal serum-free beta-hCG levels in the first-trimester. But, because of the multimodal procedure of risk calculation there is no significant difference in the screen-positive rate after the combined first-trimester screening for trisomy 21.
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