No abstract

In hospitalized preeclamptic patients, the random urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio at a cutoff of > or = 0.25 revealed a highly accurate prediction of significant proteinuria and could be a more practical alternative for assessment of proteinuria.

The objective was to assess the value of uterine artery notching as a screening test for preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction in a low-risk population of healthy pregnant women. Color Doppler ultrasound was used to examine both uterine arteries in 322 healthy pregnant women at 24.9 +/- 1.9 (range 22-28) weeks of gestation. The criterion for abnormal results was a unilateral or bilateral presence of an early diastolic notch. The major end points were preeclampsia and small for gestational age (SGA) infants. Of the 322 women, 19 (5.9%) developed preeclampsia and six of them (1.9%) delivered SGA infants. An early diastolic notch was detected in 58 women (18%). The risk of developing preeclampsia and SGA infants in an abnormal Doppler study group was found to be greater than in that of a normal group (P<0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for detecting preeclampsia were 36.8, 83.2, 12.1, and 95.5%, respectively; whereas detecting SGA infants were 67, 82.9, 6.9, and 99.2%, respectively. Women with an early diastolic notch have considerably a higher risk of developing preeclampsia and SGA infants. On the other hand, women with normal uterine artery waveforms are unlikely to develop preeclampsia and SGA infants. The test may be useful to minimize unnecessary interventions.

In hospitalized preeclamptic patients, the random urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio at a cutoff of > or = 0.25 revealed a highly accurate prediction of significant proteinuria and could be a more practical alternative for assessment of proteinuria.

With stringent protocol, our prospective large-scale multicenter nationwide study demonstrated that NIPT showed excellent performance as screening tests for the detection of fetal T21, T18, and T13 in mixed-risk pregnancies in Thailand.