title: Clinical relevance of grade III placenta in assessment of low level of plasma antithrombin III activity in pregnant women at term.
abstract: We previously reported the correlation of placenta grade with low antithrombin III (ATIII) in pregnant women at term. In this report, the clinical relevance of grade III placenta in the assessment of low plasma ATIII was compared with other factors that raise the risk of blood hypercoagulability.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the correlation of low ATIII with ultrasonographic placental grade as well as with age, parity, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, platelet counts and hematocrit in 164 healthy pregnant women at term. We calculated the odds ratio for each variable (clinical factor) to predict low ATIII activity of less than 80% using a multiple logistic regression model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low ATIII activity was associated with BMI>/=28, systolic blood pressure>/=136 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure>/=84 mmHg and the presence of grade III placenta. The odds ratio of low ATIII activity was 3.2 for women with BMI>/=28 (95%Confidential Interval (CI) : 1.1-9.7); 2.7 (95% CI: 0.7-10.3) for women with systolic blood pressure>/=136 mmHg; 1.9 (95% CI: 0.3-11.9) for those with diastolic blood pressure>/=84 mmHg; and 2.4 (95% CI: 0.8-6.9) for those with placental grade III.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We can assess low placenta ATIII activity by using placental grade with similar odds ratios to BMI and blood pressure in pregnant women at term.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. morgen@nms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hirobumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Asakura
authors.forename: Akihito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakai
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Araki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000990:Antithrombin III / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010920:Placenta / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third
chemical_list: D000990:Antithrombin III