title: Interleukin-15 (IL-15) and anti-C1q antibodies as serum biomarkers for ectopic pregnancy and missed abortion.
abstract: Given the present lack of clinically useful tests for the accurate diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy (EP), there is a need to select out those immunological factors measured in the maternal serum, as potential biomarkers. Our assumption was that C1q/anti-C1q antibody complexes and serum levels of interleukin-15 (IL-15) may play a role in differentiating abortions (MAs) and EPs and normal pregnancies. We assessed whether their measurement could set the diagnosis in a case control study at 6-8 weeks consisting of 60 women with failed early pregnancy (30 EPs, 30 MAs) and 33 women with intrauterine pregnancies. Normal pregnancies contain anti-C1q antibodies more frequently compared to women with failed pregnancies, the lowest levels being found in EPs, but this lacked statistical significance and anti-C1q could not serve as a marker. However EP pregnancies had elevated IL-15 levels that could statistically significantly differentiate them from MAs and IUPs. Furthermore, when assessing IL-15 for the clinically important differentiation between IUP and EP, we found at a cut-off of 16 pg/mL a negative predictive value of 99 with a sensitivity for diagnosing an EP of 92%. According to these results, serum IL-15 is a promising marker differentiating an MA from an EP.
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Thessaly Medical School, University Hospital Larissa, Biopolis, 41110 Larissa, Greece. dapontea@otenet.gr
authors: Alexandros
authors: A
authors: Daponte
authors: Efthimios
authors: E
authors: Deligeoroglou
authors: Spyros
authors: S
authors: Pournaras
authors: Christos
authors: C
authors: Hadjichristodoulou
authors: Antonios
authors: A
authors: Garas
authors: Foteini
authors: F
authors: Anastasiadou
authors: Ioannis E
authors: IE
authors: Messinis
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000906:Antibodies / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D015922:Complement C1q / Q000276:immunology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000097:blood*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011271:Pregnancy, Ectopic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; D019409:Interleukin-15; D015922:Complement C1q
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