
<ArticleTitle>First trimester maternal serum <prot>placenta growth factor</prot> (<prot>PIGF</prot>)concentrations in pregnancies with fetal trisomy 21 or trisomy 18.</ArticleTitle>
<AbstractText><prot>Placenta growth factor</prot> (<prot>PIGF</prot>), an angiogenic factor belonging to the vascular endothelial growth factor family, <prot>pregnancy-associated plasma protein A</prot> (<prot>PAPP-A</prot>) and free <prot>beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin</prot> (<prot>beta-hCG</prot>) were measured in maternal serum from 45 pregnancies with trisomy 21, 45 with trisomy 18 and 493 normal controls at 10-13 completed weeks of gestation. In the normal pregnancies maternal serum <prot>PIGF</prot> levels increased exponentially with gestation. The median multiple of the median (MoM) <prot>PIGF</prot> concentration in the trisomy 21 group (1.26 MoM) was significantly higher (p&#60;0.0001) than in the control group (1.00 MoM). In the trisomy 18 group the median <prot>PIGF</prot> was lower (0.889 MoM) but this did not quite reach significance (p=0.064). The corresponding median MoM values for <prot>PAPP-A</prot> were 1.00 MoM for the controls, 0.49 MoM for trisomy 21 and 0.16 MoM for trisomy 18. The median MoM values for free <prot>beta-hCG</prot> were 1.00 MoM for the controls, 2.05 MoM for trisomy 21 and 0.38 MoM for trisomy 18. In the control group there was a small but significant correlation of <prot>PIGF</prot> with free <prot>beta-hCG</prot> (r=+0.1024) and <prot>PAPP-A</prot> (r=+0.2288). In the trisomy 18 group there was a significant association between <prot>PIGF</prot> and free <prot>beta-hCG</prot> (r=+0.2629) but not with <prot>PAPP-A</prot> (r=+0.0038). In the trisomy 21 group there was a small but significant association with <prot>PAPP-A</prot> (r=+0.1028) but not with free <prot>beta-hCG</prot> (r=+0.0339). The separation of affected and unaffected pregnancies in maternal serum <prot>PIGF</prot> is small, and therefore it is unlikely that measurement of <prot>PIGF</prot> would improve screening for these abnormalities provided by the combination of fetal nuchal translucency and maternal serum <prot>PAPP-A</prot> and free <prot>beta-hCG</prot>.</AbstractText>
