Pregnancy outcomes of women with elevated second-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the overall distribution of pregnancy outcomes in women with elevated second-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MS-AFP), and to determine the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) by MS-AFP level. Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 429 women with elevated MS-AFP (≥2.5 multiple of the median (MOM)) and 1555 women with normal MS-AFP (0.5–2.49MOM) from a total of 46,741 prenatally screened singleton pregnant women. The overall distribution of APOs of the two groups, the risk of APOs by MS-AFP level, and the predictive value of elevated MS-AFP to APOs were analyzed. Results: The incidence rate of APOs in elevated MS-AFP group was significantly higher than that in normal MS-AFP group (42.89 vs. 8.23%). In elevated MS-AFP group, the top three APOs, in term of incidence rate, were structural fetal abnormalities (7.93%), spontaneous abortion (7.46%) and preterm birth (7.23%); regarding to the risk, the top three APOs were stillbirth, spontaneous abortion and early-onset preeclampsia (odds ratio 35.98, 20.81 and 8.58 respectively). For structural fetal abnormalities, MS-AFP had predictive values for fetal open neural tube defects (ONTDs), gastroschisis and multiple malformations. Conclusion: Elevated MS-AFP is associated with increased risks of APOs. ONTDs complicate merely a small proportion of pregnancies with elevated MS-AFP, and the rest of them have high risks of obstetric complications. MS-AFP can help to identify these women at high risk of APOs in earlier second-trimester. Keywords: Alpha-fetoproteins, Neural tube defects, Pre-eclampsia, Premature birth, Spontaneous abortion, Stillbirth