Significance of maternal serum pentraxin-3 level in assessment of severity of pre-eclampsia and its effect on neonatal outcome

Abstract

Abstract Background: Preeclampsia is a multisystem, highly variable disorder specific to pregnancy. Pentraxin-3 (PTX3), a recently identified multimeric inflammatory mediator, it can be considered as a promising biomarker of preeclampsia and its severity. Objective: To determine the association between maternal serum PTX3 level and preeclampsia, its severity and its effect on the neonatal outcome. Materials and Methods: This case control study was carried-out at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Azadi Teaching Hospital, Kirkuk City, Iraq from 1st of February, till 30th of November 2021. The study included 92 pregnant women at term who were divided into three groups (mild preeclampsia, severe preeclampsia, and pregnant without preeclampsia and regarded as control group). The neonatal outcomes were documented. PTX3 was measured in the serum using human PTX3 ELISA KIT. Results: PTX3 cutoff value of ≥120.8 pg/mL was associated with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 96%. The correlation between PTX3 and urea, body mass index, birth weight, APGAR (A for neonatal appearance, P for heart rate, G for grimace, A for activity, R for respiration) score in 1 and 5 minutes showed that, there was significant positive weak correlation between PTX3 and urea, in which an increase in urea was associated with an increase in PTX3. Also, there was significant negative weak correlation between PTX3 with birth weight and APGAR 1, in which an increase in PTX3 was associated with a decrease in birth weight and APGAR in 1 min. Conclusion: PTX3 is one of the biochemical markers in diagnosing preeclampsia and distinguishing its severity and can be used as a marker for early neonatal outcome in preeclampsia.