Accuracy of Combined Measure of Serum Uric Acid and Beta Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (β hCG) ..

Background: It has been suggested that measuring a range of molecular, biochemical, and biophysical markers in pregnancy involved in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia can predict its progression.At the Federal Medical Centre in Yenagoa, researchers compared the accuracy of a combined measure of maternal serum uric acid level and quantitative serum beta hCG versus serum beta hCG alone as prognostic measures of pregnancy outcome in preeclamptic patients. Methods: A prospective case management study with systematic sampling selection was conducted in a hospital setting.

Over the course of the seven-month trial, the two groups of patients, one with pre-eclampsia (study group) and the other without pre-eclampsia (control group), were admitted for management to the antenatal ward and labour ward. On admission, their serum uric acid and beta hCG levels were assessed and followed up on. A statistical kit for social science was used for data entry and statistical analysis (windows version 22.0. SPSS Inc; Chicago, USA). The significance level was set at P 0.05.The subjects' mean quantitative serum hCG level (26776.6 19590.5) was statistically significantly higher (p 0.001) than the control group's mean quantitative serum hCG level (7973.6 4193.7). For combined measures of serum uric acid and serum hCG, and serum hCG alone, the prognostic precision in predicting pregnancy outcomes was: HELLP syndrome (0.33, 0.44), Eclampsia (0.50, 0.39), Acute Renal Failure (0.44, 0.33), IUGR (0.43, 0.39), IUFD (0.38, 0.27), and Birth Asphyxia (0.49, 0.38) respectively. Conclusion: In preeclamptic women, serum hCG levels remain a valuable prognostic predictor for feto-maternal outcome.

However, a combined measure of serum uric acid and serum hCG level was shown to be more accurate than serum hCG in predicting pregnancy outcome in preeclamptic women.

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