Abnormal analyte preeclampsia: do the second-trimester maternal serum analytes help differentiate preeclampsia subtypes?

OBJECTIVE: To determine if serum screen analytes identify preeclamptic patients at risk for small-for-gestational age newborns, maternal laboratory abnormalities and preterm delivery (<37 weeks gestation). STUDY DESIGN: Using a retrospective cohort of 102 preeclamptic patients, associations between serum screen analytes and newborn birth-weight percentile, gestational age (GA) at delivery and maternal pre-delivery laboratory abnormalities were evaluated using correlation coefficients and local polynomial regression. RESULT: Inhibin-A and maternal serum alpha fetoprotein were inversely correlated with newborn birth-weight percentile (-0.27, P = 0.006; -0.35, P = 0.00004) and delivery GA (r = -0.42, P < 0.0001; r = -0.26, P = 0.008) and positively correlated with pre-delivery aspartate aminotransferase (r = 0.22, P = 0.03; r = 0.21, P = 0.04) and lactate dehydrogenase (r = 0.33, P = 0.0007; r = 0.29, P = 0.004). A positive correlation was noted between both second-trimester beta human chorionic gonadotropin and estriol and maternal pre-delivery creatinine (0.28, P = 0.004; 0.4, P < 0.0001, respectively). Hundred percent of patients with >= 2 abnormal analytes delivered before 37 weeks gestation. CONCLUSION: Preeclamptic patients with abnormal serum screen analytes are more likely to have small-for-gestational age newborns, deliver preterm and have pre-delivery laboratory abnormalities.