title: Maternal serum inhibin-A in pregnancies with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: implications for screening for Down's syndrome.
abstract: A nested case-control study using stored serum samples collected as part of a prospective study of the outcome of pregnancy was performed to investigate concentrations of (dimeric) inhibin-A in maternal serum between 15 and 22 weeks of pregnancy in 126 pregnancies among 92 women with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Each IDDM pregnancy was matched with two control singleton pregnancies for gestational age (same completed week) and duration of sample storage (same calendar quarter). The median inhibin-A level in the IDDM pregnancies was 0.88 multiples of the median (MOM) for pregnancies without IDDM at the same gestational age (P = 0.05) (95 per cent confidence interval 0.78-1.00) or 0.91 MOM after adjustment for maternal weight. These results enable inhibin-A values to be adjusted so that prenatal screening for Down's syndrome can be performed using this marker in IDDM pregnancies as well as in non-diabetic pregnancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, St Bartholomew's, London, U.K.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Wald
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Watt
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: George
mesh_terms: D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000097:blood; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004964:Estriol / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007265:Inhibins / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011254:Pregnancy in Diabetics / Q000097:blood*; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012016:Reference Values; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; D007265:Inhibins; D004964:Estriol