Cadherin-18 and Preeclampsia: A Novel Biomarker With Prognostic Value in the Second Trimester?

Preeclampsia is an obstetric complication with morbidity and mortality that occurs after the 20th week of pregnancy. Cadherins, which play a role in trophoblast development and placentation, are blamed for the pathogenesis of this disease and our aim was to investigate the potential of cadherin-18 level to predict pre-eclampsia.

In this retrospective case-control study, serum cadherin-18 levels in the early second trimester of pregnancy (between 15 and 20 weeks of gestation) were compared between pregnant women who developed preeclampsia within a 1-year period and healthy pregnant women.

A total of 170 pregnant women were included in the study; 85 of them were diagnosed with preeclampsia and 85 of them constituted the healthy control group. Of the patients diagnosed with preeclampsia, 40 were classified as early-onset and 45 as late-onset preeclampsia. The mean age was 30.8 years in the preeclampsia group and 28.7 years in the control group. Serum cadherin-18 levels were significantly higher in patients with preeclampsia compared to healthy pregnant women. According to Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis, the cut-off value of 1015.9 pg/mL for the diagnosis of preeclampsia had discriminative power with a sensitivity of 57.6% and specificity of 94.1%. In addition, cadherin-18 levels above 1302.5 pg/mL provided 85.0% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity in predicting early-onset preeclampsia.

Cadherin-18 level is associated with preeclampsia and may be used as a potential biomarker in the prediction of this disease.