title: A longitudinal study of maternal digoxin-like immunoreactive substances in normotensive pregnancy and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
abstract: The serum of women in the third trimester of pregnancy demonstrates cross-reactivity with some commercially available antibodies to digoxin. A number of studies have suggested that levels of this digoxin-like immunoreactive substance(s) are further increased in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension, and some have proposed that the digoxin-like immunoreactive substance could be useful as a predictor of pregnancy-induced hypertension. We measured digoxin-like immunoreactive substance levels every 2 weeks throughout the third trimester in 170 women; of these, 20 developed hypertension. Digoxin-like immunoreactive substance levels rose with gestational age. A graph of the slope of digoxin-like immunoreactive substance plotted against gestational age was fitted for the results obtained from each woman. There was no significant difference in the mean rate of increase of digoxin-like immunoreactive substance level per week between pregnancy-induced hypertension and normotensive pregnancy, nor was there any difference between these two groups at any gestational age studied. These results suggest that measuring digoxin-like immunoreactive substance levels is not useful as a predictor of pregnancy-induced hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Renal Laboratory, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kerkez
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poston
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Quartero
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carabelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petruckevitch
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hilton
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D004077:Digoxin / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D011249:Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D004077:Digoxin