Expression and diagnostic value of plasma protein Z and protein Z-dependent protease inhibitor in fetal growth restriction.

OBJECTIVES

Investigating the expression levels of plasma protein Z (PZ) and protein Z-dependent protease inhibitor (ZPI) in fetal growth restriction (FGR) and to explore their diagnostic value in FGR.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In this study, the number of pregnant women with FGR, healthy pregnant women (Healthy Control, HC), and childbearing-age women without pregnancy (Blank Control, BC) is 79, 79, and 60, respectively; their plasma PZ and ZPI levels in each group are determined by ELISAs. Then, the correlations between these indices and FGR were assessed using Spearman analysis. Moreover, these indices' diagnostic values for FGR are evaluated using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves.

RESULTS

The plasma levels of PZ and ZPI are significantly decreased in the HC and FGR groups compared against the BC group (P < 0.001), whilst the levels of PZ and ZPI in the FGR groups are lower than those in the HC group (P < 0.01) notably. PZ plasma concentration has positive relationship with ZPI concentrations in the HC and FGR groups. The combination of PZ and ZPI, with the Area under the Curve (AUC) 0.92 (95% CI = 0.88-0.96), the sensitivity 0.82, and the specificity 0.88, outperforms everyone.

CONCLUSIONS

Plasma PZ and ZPI are significantly decreased in pregnant women with FGR, which can be used for pregnant women's FGR screening.