title: High maternal serum inhibin A levels following the loss of one fetus in a twin pregnancy.
abstract: Inhibin A levels are elevated in the second trimester of pregnancies affected with fetal Down syndrome, on average, two times the level in unaffected pregnancies. Inhibin A levels are also two times higher in twin than in singleton pregnancies. Prenatal serum screening using inhibin A levels as a second trimester marker began at the Women and Infants Hospital in March 1998. We describe a case of a 17-year-old woman thought to have had a complete spontaneous abortion of a twin pregnancy but later found to be continuing the pregnancy with a single fetus. Routine second trimester prenatal serum screening revealed an extremely elevated inhibin A level of 39 MoM (multiples of the median). The patient delivered an apparently healthy female infant at 41 weeks of gestation. Therefore, inhibin A may be extremely elevated in the second trimester of a twin pregnancy after the loss of one fetus and this increased inhibin A level does not have any obvious adverse maternal or fetal effects.
authors: Brown University School of Medicine and Women and Infants Hospital, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Providence, RI, USA.
authors: K M
authors: KM
authors: Goodwin
authors: P J
authors: PJ
authors: Sweeney
authors: G M
authors: GM
authors: Lambert-Messerlian
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Canick
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000097:blood*; D000293:Adolescent; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D006801:Humans; D007265:Inhibins / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D014427:Twins
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D007265:Inhibins