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The 4-vessel Sampling Approach to Integrative Studies of Human Placental Physiology In Vivo
Published on: August 2, 2017
First trimester maternal serum placental growth factor in trisomy 21 pregnancies
N J Cowans1, A Stamatopoulou, K Spencer
1Prenatal Research Unit, Clinical Biochemistry Department, King George Hospital, Goodmayes, UK.
Objective:
To examine placental growth factor (PlGF) levels in first trimester maternal serum in trisomy 21 pregnancies and to investigate the potential value of PlGF in a first trimester screening test.
Methods:
First trimester maternal serum from 70 trisomy 21 cases and 375 euploid controls were retrospectively analyzed for PlGF using a DELFIA Xpress immunoassay platform. Results were expressed as multiples of medians (MoM) for comparison.
Results:
PlGF levels were significantly decreased in pregnancies with trisomy 21, 0.76 MoM versus 0.98 MoM in controls. Inclusion of PlGF into the first trimester combined test [maternal age, pregnancy associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A), free-beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta-hCG) and nuchal translucency] would increase the detection rate by 0.5% at a 5% false positive rate.
Conclusion:
PlGF at 11 weeks to 13 weeks 6 days has the potential to be included as a marker for the detection of pregnancies with trisomy 21.
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