title: A prospective study of haemostatic tests at 28 weeks gestation as predictors of pre-eclampsia and growth retardation.
abstract: A panel of haemostatic tests was performed on 400 primiparous women at 28 weeks to test whether one or more could predict the development of pregnancy complications. Fifteen women subsequently developed pre-eclampsia with significant proteinuria and 13 delivered growth retarded infants. There were no significant differences between mothers in the pre-eclampsia group and 22 randomly selected controls. A stepwise logistic discriminant analysis of the data did not produce a significant model. In the growth retarded group only beta thromboglobulin levels were significantly lower than in the controls (p less than 0.05), although in the logistic discriminant analysis the inclusion of both beta thromboglobulin and fibrin degradation products led to a borderline significant improvement in fit of the model. We conclude that the haemostatic variables studied are not significantly changed at 28 weeks nor clinically useful predictors of either pre-eclampsia or fetal growth retardation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Leeds General Infirmary, UK.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Molloy
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Vinall
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Philips
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006487:Hemostasis; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors