Serum B-hCG levels in a diagnosis and management of preeclampsia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the correlation of serum BhCG level and preeclampsia and evaluate its utility as a diagnostic test. Sixty-six hypertensive pregnant patients, who had been hospitalized and 66 normotensive pregnant women who attended the outpatient permatology clinic in Imam Khomeini Education and Research Hospital Sari, Iran between April 2007 and April 2008 were enrolled in the study. The patients who had a history of chronic hypertension, diabetes, other chronic disease or smoking and twin pregnancy were excluded. Subjects were matched for gestational age, maternal age and BMI. The serum concentration of B-hCG were measured by chemiluminescence (Liaison Germany). The data were analyzed with usage Student t-test and chi-squire. p<0.05 was considered significant. Among 66 women in case group 53% had mild and 46% had severe preeclampsia. The mean of maternal serum. BhCG level in patients with preeclampsia was significantly higher than in the controls (p = 0.002). In mild preeclampsia the mean of serum BhCG level was greater than that for severe preeclampsia but this difference was not significant (p = 0.2). In preeclamptic group with gestational age of 26-30 weeks (n = 4) the mean of BhCG level differed from normotensive one (n = 6) (p = 0.8). Between 31-40 week the mean of BhCG levels in the hypertensive (n = 62) and control (n = 60) groups were 31240.4±25690.7 and 17387.9±13661 mIU mL-1 (p = 0.04). In this study, the sensitivity and specificity of BhCG as diagnostic test in preeclampsia was 68 and 63% and the sensitivity and specificity of BhCG for differentiation between mild and severe disease was 68 and 66%. The utility of elevated BhCG as diagnostic test for diagnosis and management of preeclampsia is limited.