title: Urinary placental growth factor differentiates the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the discriminating capacity of urinary placental growth factor (uPlGF) for different hypertensive diseases of pregnancy during the third trimester.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective descriptive case-control study conducted in an urban tertiary referral hospital and district general hospital, Sydney South West Area Health Service, Australia. Inpatients and outpatients with and without hypertension in the third trimester were recruited. Eligible patients provided a urine sample for protein, creatinine and a uPlGF level by ELISA. Patients were categorised into clinical hypertensive groups based on the diagnostic criteria of SOMANZ.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-eight women were evaluated; 41 had hypertension (15 pre-eclampsia; 13 gestational hypertension; eight chronic hypertension; five pre-eclampsia superimposed on chronic hypertension) and 47 women without hypertension as the control group. There was a significant difference in uPlGF levels between the pre-eclamptic group (median 2.56 IQR 1.12-4.51) and the normotensive controls (median 13.18 IQR 5.95-31.39) (P < 0.0001); the gestational hypertensive group (median 3.74 IQR 2.49-4.91) and the normotensive group (median 13.18 IQR 5.95-31.39) (P=0.002) and for a subgroup comparison of placental-mediated hypertension (median 2.75 IQR 1.38-4.82) versus non-placental-mediated hypertensives (median 6.96 IQR 3.87-12.54) (P=0.007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urinary placental growth factor is a simple non-invasive test, which is discriminatory for pre-eclampsia in the third trimester of pregnancy. Results from this study indicate that it may be discriminatory for hypertension related to placental dysfunction (pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension) when compared with hypertension unrelated to placental function. Further work is required to assess the ability to detect hypertensive diseases before they are clinically apparent.
authors: Royal Hospital for Women and University of New South Wales, Sydney South West Area Health Service, NSW, Australia. neilcampbell2@lycos.com
authors: Neil
authors: N
authors: Campbell
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Ogle
authors: Charlene
authors: C
authors: Thornton
authors: Annemarie
authors: A
authors: Hennessy
authors: Jason
authors: J
authors: Abbott
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine; D010920:Placenta / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000072483:Placenta Growth Factor; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C000608036:PGF protein, human; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins; D000072483:Placenta Growth Factor