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Maternal serum PAPP-A as an early marker of obstetric complications?
Tommasa Quattrocchi1, Giovanni Baviera, Teresa Pochiero
1Department of Pediatrics, Gynecology, Microbiology and Biomedical Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate whether low first-trimester PAPP-A levels are associated with an adverse pregnancy outcome.
Materials And Methods:
A retrospective case-control study was carried out using a Down's syndrome assays database over a 6-year period, between the 8th and 11th week of pregnancy. There were 164 women with PAPP-A multiples of median (MoM) levels <0.3 and 1,640 women with PAPP-A MoM levels ≥0.3 who served as a control group. Outcome measures were the prevalence of miscarriages, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, pre-term delivery, gestational diabetes and intrauterine growth retardation in both groups.
Results:
The two groups significantly differed only for miscarriages: 29 (17.7%) vs. 159 (9.7%), p = 0.04, OR 1.7; gestational hypertension: 15 (9.1%) vs. 74 (4.5%), p = 0.02, OR 2.1, and preeclampsia: 9 (5.5%) vs. 29 (1.8%), p = 0.02, OR 2.5.
Discussion:
Even if in this study the PAPP-A cutoff considered was lower and was assayed in an earlier period compared with other studies, the detection rate for adverse pregnancy outcomes did not improve.
