Prothrombin G20210A mutation: is it associated with pre-eclampsia?
OBJECTIVE
A strong independent association between the prothrombin G20210A gene mutation and pre-eclampsia has been reported in an Italian population. This result was not confirmed in a subsequent study in a Dutch population. The objective of this study was to further test the hypothesis that the prothrombin G20210A mutation is associated with pre-eclampsia/eclampsia.


METHODS
Seventeen eclamptics and 67 pre-eclamptics were recruited from 34 multicase Australian/New Zealand families. An additional 105 unrelated pre-eclamptic/eclamptic women and 119 parous women were recruited as controls.


RESULTS
The overall incidence for the prothrombin G20210A gene mutation in the pre-eclamptic group was 3.6% (95% CI 1.2-8.2%) which was not significantly different from the control group 2.5% (95% CI 0.5-7.2%) (p = 0.73, OR 1.44, 95% CI 0.34-6.17).


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides little evidence of a significant relationship between the prothrombin G20210A gene mutation and pre-eclampsia. Based on our results, we do not recommend testing for the prothrombin G20210A mutation in the routine investigation of women with pre-eclampsia.
Higgins
J R
JR
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Vic., Australia. j.higgins@obsgyn-mercy.unimelb.edu.au
Kaiser
T
T
Moses
E K
EK
North
R
R
Brennecke
S P
SP
D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010375:Pedigree; D017354:Point Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D011516:Prothrombin / Q000235:genetics*; D012494:Sampling Studies
D011516:Prothrombin