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A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Associations between Maternal AFP and β-HCG and Preterm Birth
Xu Wang1,2,3, Ying Chen1, Hualong Kuang2,3
1Central Lab, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Wuxi, China.
Objective:
Preterm birth (PTB) is a significant public health problem. We aimed to explore whether alpha fetal protein (AFP) or β-human gonadotropin (β-HCG) levels during pregnancy were associated with PTB in Chinese population.
Study Design:
The clinical data collected Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Suzhou Hospital and Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital between January 2006 and December 2011 were analyzed retrospectively. A total of 64,999 pregnant women were registered. In addition, 13,828 pregnant women were collected serum from the second trimester. The maternal serum AFP and β-HCG were measured by enzyme immunoassay.
Results:
In our study, the rate of PTB is 6.23%. With each unit increase of maternal AFP concentration, the adjusted odds of PTB was increased by 69.3% (odds ratio = 1.693, 95% confidence interval: 1.434-1.999, p = 0.00). We set AFP concentrations as high, medium, and low levels. When comparing with low concentration of AFP, high concentration of AFP (≥1.179 M) was positively associated with PTB with adjustment for potential confounders (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, no statistically significant associations were observed between maternal β-HCG and PTB.
Conclusion:
In this study, maternal AFP concentration was associated with increased risk of PTB.
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