Maternal serum human chorionic gonadotrophin levels in systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome.
Maternal serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) levels were measured during the second and the third trimesters of pregnancy in patients with either systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). All results were expressed in multiples of the gestation-specific normal medians (MoM). The median MoM level in 17 samples from SLE patients was 1.48 compared with 0.79 MoM in 99 controls of similar gestation (p < 0.002, Wilcoxon Rank sum test). In contrast the median MoM level in 19 samples from primary APS patients was only 1.14. These preliminary findings should be further studied to evaluate the implications for Down syndrome screening, detection of SLE cases during pregnancy and the prediction of adverse outcome in SLE gestations.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Assaf Harofe Medical Center, Zerifin 70300, Israel.
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R
Maymon
H
H
Cuckle
I K
IK
Sehmi
A
A
Herman
D
D
Sherman
D016736:Antiphospholipid Syndrome / Q000097:blood*; D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000097:blood*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D016682:Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor / Q000097:blood; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012044:Regression Analysis
D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin; D016682:Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor