title: Placental growth factor as a new marker for predicting abnormal glucose challenge test results.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To differentiate placental growth factor (PlGF) levels in pregnancies with normal and abnormal glucose challenge test (GCT) results.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 94 pregnant women underwent a 50 -g GCT as part of our routine antenatal screening protocol from September 2011 to January 2012. The patients were divided into three groups: (i) normal GCT, (ii) abnormal GCT and (iii) gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) based on the screening results for gestational diabetes. The main outcome measure of the study was the relationship between PlGF and GCT results in non-diabetic pregnancies. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the variables' distributions. The Kruskal-Wallis and analysis of variance tests (Tukey's test) were used to analyze the qualitative parameters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 53 (56.4%), 22 (23.4%) and 19 (20.2%) patients in the normal GCT, abnormal GCT and GDM groups, respectively. The PlGF level in the abnormal GCT group was 518 ± 307.6 pg/mL, which was the highest level in the study population, and there was a statistically significant difference compared with the other groups (p = 0.006). There were no statistically significant differences with respect to fetal birth weight among the three groups in our study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PlGF can be used as a laboratory marker to predict which patients will have abnormal GCT results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bakirkoy Dr Sadi Konuk Teaching and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. obstetrik@gmail.com
authors.forename: Hüseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cengiz
authors.forename: Cihan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaya
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ekin
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yesil
authors.forename: Hediye
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dağdeviren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D000072483:Placenta Growth Factor; D011247:Pregnancy; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000502:physiology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C000608036:PGF protein, human; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins; D000072483:Placenta Growth Factor