Assessing the sensitivity of placental growth factor and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 at 36?weeks’ gestation to predict small-for-gestational-age infants or late-onset preeclampsia: a prospective nested case-control study

摘要

Fetal growth restriction is a disorder of placental dysfunction with three to four-fold increased risk of stillbirth. Fetal growth restriction has pathophysiological features in common with preeclampsia. We hypothesised that angiogenesis-related factors in maternal plasma, known to predict preeclampsia, may also detect fetal growth restriction at 36?weeks’ gestation. We therefore set out to determine the diagnostic performance of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1), placental growth factor (PlGF), and the sFlt-1:PlGF ratio, measured at 36?weeks’ gestation, in identifying women who subsequently give birth to small-for-gestational-age (SGA; birthweight <10th centile) infants. We also aimed to validate the predictive performance of the analytes for late-onset preeclampsia in a large independent, prospective cohort. A nested 1:2 case-control study was performed including 102 cases of SGA infants and a matched group of 207 controls; and 39 cases of preeclampsia. We determined the diagnostic performance of each angiogenesis-related factor, and of their ratio, to detect SGA infants or preeclampsia, for a predetermined 10% false positive rate. Median plasma levels of PlGF at 36?weeks’ gestation were significantly lower in women who subsequently had SGA newborns (178.5?pg/ml) compared to normal birthweight controls (326.7?pg/ml, p?