Associations between Maternal AFP and β-HCG and Preterm Birth

  • Wang, Xu MD, PhD
  • Chen, Ying PhD
  • Kuang, Hualong
  • Yang, Rui PhD
  • Chen, Daozhen PhD
  • Chen, Ailing PhD
  • Feng, Yaling PhD
  • Dai, Jianrong BS
  • Wang, Ting MS
  • Wang, Yun MS

  • 1 Central Lab, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Wuxi, China,

    2 State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China,

    3 Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China,

    4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Wuxi, China,

    5 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Suzhou Hospital, Suzhou, China,

Address for correspondence

Ying Chen, PhD Central Lab, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, 48 Huaishu Lane, Wuxi 214002, China

(e-mail; [email protected]).

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

American Journal of Perinatology 36(14):p 1459-1463, December 2019. | DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1677017

Abstract

Objective

Preterm birth (PTB) is a significant public health problem. We aimed to explore whether alpha fetal protein (AFP) or β-human gonadotropin (β-HCG) levels during pregnancy were associated with PTB in Chinese population.

Study Design

The clinical data collected Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Suzhou Hospital and Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital between January 2006 and December 2011 were analyzed retrospectively. A total of 64,999 pregnant women were registered. In addition, 13,828 pregnant women were collected serum from the second trimester. The maternal serum AFP and β-HCG were measured by enzyme immunoassay.

Results

In our study, the rate of PTB is 6.23%. With each unit increase of maternal AFP concentration, the adjusted odds of PTB was increased by 69.3% (odds ratio = 1.693, 95% confidence interval: 1.434-1.999, p = 0.00). We set AFP concentrations as high, medium, and low levels. When comparing with low concentration of AFP, high concentration of AFP (≥1.179 M) was positively associated with PTB with adjustment for potential confounders (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, no statistically significant associations were observed between maternal β-HCG and PTB.

Conclusion

In this study, maternal AFP concentration was associated with increased risk of PTB.

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