Maternal plasma pentraxin 3 at 11 to 13 weeks of gestation in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Objective To investigate whether in pregnancies that subsequently develop preeclampsia (PE), the maternal plasma concentration of the inflammatory factor pentraxin 3 (PTX3) at 11–13 weeks of gestation is increased and whether such a possible increase is associated with uterine artery pulsatility index (PI). Methods The concentration of plasma PTX3 at 11–13 weeks was measured in a case‐control study from 120 pregnancies that developed PE, including 27 who required delivery before 34 weeks (early PE), 87 cases of gestational hypertension (GH) and 207 normal controls. The median PTX3 multiple of the median (MoM) in the control and hypertensive groups were compared. Regression analysis was used to determine the significance of the association between plasma PTX3 and uterine artery PI. Results Plasma PTX3 was significantly higher in the early PE group (1.44 MoM; p < 0.0083) but not in late PE (1.11 MoM) or GH (1.10 MoM) compared to the controls (0.97 MoM). There was no significant association between plasma PTX3 levels and uterine artery PI in either the PE group (p = 0.693) or in the controls (p = 0.209). Conclusion Increase in maternal plasma PTX3 in pregnancies that subsequently develop early PE is evident from 11–13 weeks but the underlying mechanism for such an increase remains uncertain. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.