Placental protein measurements in complicated pregnancies. II. Pregnancy-related hypertension.

Maternal serum levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), human placental lactogen (hPL) and schwangerschafts-protein 1 (SP1) were measured serially during the second and third trimesters in 753 women with a normal pregnancy when recruited during the second trimester. Thirty-seven pregnancies were complicated by pregnancy-related hypertension after 28 weeks gestation. Maternal levels of PAPP-A and SP1, and trends of levels in individual patients, could generally not be distinguished from those seen in patients with a normal pregnancy, and were unrelated to the time of onset of the disease, its severity or the occurrence of other complications with one exception, in which decreased levels of SP1 and hPL were seen. Mean levels of hPL were significantly lower (P less than 0.05) at 35 weeks gestation. These data suggest that the measurement of the placental proteins examined here is of no value in the prediction of occurrence of pregnancy-related hypertension.