Original Paper

Maternal plasma pentraxin 3 at 11 to 13 weeks of gestation in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

  1. Ranjit Akolekar,
  2. Davide Casagrandi,
  3. Panagiotis Livanos,
  4. Amos Tetteh,
  5. Kypros H Nicolaides*

Article first published online: 29 JUN 2009

DOI: 10.1002/pd.2311

Issue

Prenatal Diagnosis

Prenatal Diagnosis

Volume 29, Issue 10, pages 934–938, October 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

Akolekar, R., Casagrandi, D., Livanos, P., Tetteh, A. and Nicolaides, K. H. (2009), Maternal plasma pentraxin 3 at 11 to 13 weeks of gestation in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Prenatal Diagnosis, 29: 934–938. doi: 10.1002/pd.2311

Author Information

  1. Harris Birthright Research Centre for Fetal Medicine, King's College Hospital, London, UK

*Harris Birthright Research Centre for Fetal Medicine, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 29 SEP 2009
  2. Article first published online: 29 JUN 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 11 MAY 2009
  4. Manuscript Revised: 3 MAY 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 24 MAR 2009

Funded by

  • The Fetal Medicine Foundation. Grant Number: 1 037 116

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

Get PDF (96K)

Keywords:

  • pentraxin 3;
  • first trimester screening;
  • preeclampsia;
  • uterine artery Doppler

Abstract

Objective

To investigate whether in pregnancies that subsequently develop preeclampsia (PE), the maternal plasma concentration of the inflammatory factor pentraxin 3 (PTX3) at 11–13 weeks of gestation is increased and whether such a possible increase is associated with uterine artery pulsatility index (PI).

Methods

The concentration of plasma PTX3 at 11–13 weeks was measured in a case-control study from 120 pregnancies that developed PE, including 27 who required delivery before 34 weeks (early PE), 87 cases of gestational hypertension (GH) and 207 normal controls. The median PTX3 multiple of the median (MoM) in the control and hypertensive groups were compared. Regression analysis was used to determine the significance of the association between plasma PTX3 and uterine artery PI.

Results

Plasma PTX3 was significantly higher in the early PE group (1.44 MoM; p < 0.0083) but not in late PE (1.11 MoM) or GH (1.10 MoM) compared to the controls (0.97 MoM). There was no significant association between plasma PTX3 levels and uterine artery PI in either the PE group (p = 0.693) or in the controls (p = 0.209).

Conclusion

Increase in maternal plasma PTX3 in pregnancies that subsequently develop early PE is evident from 11–13 weeks but the underlying mechanism for such an increase remains uncertain. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Get PDF (96K)