[The clinical value of plasma fibronectin in pregnancy]

We have measured plasmatic fibronectin in 23 normotensive pregnant women during pregnancy (overall 161 values). On the average 6 samples from every woman have been taken. Plasmatic fibronectin rose continuously from 313 +/- 76 mg/l in the first trimester to 416 +/- 194 mg/l in the third trimester. Normal pregnant women (n = 173, 358 +/- 140 mg/l) were compared with pregnant patients with preeclampsia (n = 37), woman with chronic hypertension in pregnancy (n = 25) and normotensive pregnant patients with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR, n = 5). In the group with chronic hypertension (466 +/- 119 mg/l) there was no significant difference to the normal group, but we found a significant (p < 0.01) different value of fibronectin (748 +/- 195 mg/l) in the group of patients with preeclampsia. A tendency to higher fibronectin values was also noticed in the group with IUGR (739 +/- 212 mg/l). Because of the low number of patients this difference was not statistically significant. We conclude, that plasmatic fibronectin is an important, but not absolutely specific screening parameter for estimation of the endothelial injury in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. We believe, that fibronectin is one the best parameters to forecast a preeclampsia.