Thrombopoietin in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia.
OBJECTIVE
In normal pregnancy and pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia it has been demonstrated that there is increased activation of platelets and the clotting and fibrinolytic system. We measured plasma levels of thrombopoietin, a major regulator of platelet production in these conditions.


METHODS
We compared the thrombopoietin plasma levels of healthy term pregnant patients (n = 21) with those of healthy nonpregnant controls (n = 17), as well as patients with severe preeclampsia (n = 8) and the hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets syndrome (n = 6).


RESULTS
Thrombopoietin levels in normal pregnant patients and pregnancies complicated by the hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets syndrome were statistically significantly higher than thrombopoietin levels in nonpregnant controls. Data were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks.


CONCLUSIONS
This study is the first to report thrombopoietin levels in pregnancy. Thrombopoietin levels are significantly greater in pregnant patients and in pregnancies complicated by the hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets syndrome compared with nonpregnant controls.
Department of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
M A
MA
Frölich
S
S
Datta
S B
SB
Corn
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D017359:HELLP Syndrome / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013926:Thrombopoietin / Q000097:blood*
D013926:Thrombopoietin