Mid-trimester triple test levels in early and late onset severe pre-eclampsia

Simon Shenhav, Ofer Gemer*, Essie Sassoon, Michael Volodarsky, Ronit Peled, Shmuel Segal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To study whether the degree of elevation of mid-trimester triple test markers differs in patients with early versus late onset severe pre-eclampsia. Methods: A retrospective study of the medical records of 102 patients with severe pre-eclampsia for whom mid-trimester triple test result data were available was made. None of these patients had fetuses with abnormal karyotype nor delivered infants with malformations. Pre-eclampsia was defined as early onset when it presented before 32 weeks' gestation. The levels of mid-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP), human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and unconjugated oestriol (MSuE3) in patients with early and late onset severe pre-eclampsia were compared. Results: Twenty-five patients had early onset and 77 patients had late onset severe pre-eclampsia. The two groups did not differ significantly with regard to age, weight, parity and severity of pre-eclampsia. The mean MSAFP in patients with early onset was significantly higher than in patients with late onset severe preeclampsia (1.46 MoM, SE 0.12 versus 1.16 MoM, SE 0.05; p=0.01). The mean hCG in the early onset group was also significantly higher than in the late onset group (1.71 MoM, SE 0.18 versus 1.21 MoM, SE 0.07; p = 0.03). Mean MSuE3 levels in patients with early onset were significantly lower than in patients with late onset severe pre-eclampsia (0.83 MoM, SE 0.05 versus 1.02 MoM, SE 0.03; p = 0.04). Conclusions: Higher MSAFP and hCG, and lower MSuE3, may be more significant markers of early rather than late onset severe pre-eclampsia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)579-582
Number of pages4
JournalPrenatal Diagnosis
Volume22
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Early onset pre-eclampsia
  • HCG
  • Late onset pre-eclampsia
  • Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein
  • Maternal serum unconjugated oestriol

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