title: Accuracy of fibronectin tests for the prediction of pre-eclampsia: a systematic review.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to review systematically all studies that assessed the accuracy of maternal plasma fibronectin as a serum marker for early prediction of pre-eclampsia. We therefore assessed studies that reported on fibronectin as serum marker for pre-eclampsia before the 25th gestational week. For the selected studies, sensitivity and specificity were calculated and plotted in ROC-space. We included 12 studies, of which only 5 studies reported sufficient data to calculate accuracy estimates, such as sensitivity and specificity. These five studies reported on 573 pregnant women of whom 109 developed pre-eclampsia. At a sensitivity of at least 50%, specificities ranged between 72 and 96% for cellular fibronectin. For total fibronectin, these numbers were 42-94%. Fibronectin seems to be a promising marker for the prediction of pre-eclampsia, however, further studies are needed to determine whether the accuracy of this test is sufficient to be clinically relevant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.m.leeflang@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: M M G
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Leeflang
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Cnossen
authors.forename: J A M
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: van der Post
authors.forename: B W J
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Mol
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: ter Riet
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D003944:Diagnostic Techniques, Obstetrical and Gynecological; D005260:Female; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005353:Fibronectins