Evaluation of uterine artery doppler, afp and β-hcg in terms of perinatal outcomes

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of relationship between uterine artery doppler findings, alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and be-ta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) levels for pe-rinatal outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: First fifty pregnant with <18 weeks of gestation who were admitted to the clinic from July 2009 were to be examined. The study included forty nine of pregnants and they were followed prospe-ctively. Serum concentrations of AFP and β-hCG measured between 16-18 weeks of pregnancy and suprapubic doppler ultrasonography for uterine artery performed between 22-24 weeks of pregnancy were noted. Hyper-tension before pregnancy or previous pregnancies with preeclampsia-eclampsia, history of recurrent pregnancy loss, history of low birth weight newborn, history of car-diac or renal disease, diabetes mellitus and anticoagula-tion or aspirin treatments were determined as exclusion criteria. Chi-square test was performed for comparision of datas because of non-parametric specialities. RESULTS: The ages of the pregnants were between 19 and 35. The mean gravidity and parity of the study cohort were 2.1 and 1.6 respectively. There were no correlations among uterine artery doppler findings, serum β-hCG le-vels and perinatal outcomes. Serum AFP concentrations were significantly higher in all patients with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Also 4 patients had IUGR, 9 pa-tients had preterm labor, 7 patients had gestational dia-betes, 2 patients had preeclampsia, 2 patients had fetal distress and 6 patients had fetal meconium. There were no correlations for perinatal outcomes except IUGR. CONCLUSION: A number of tests performed to predict adverse obstetric outcomes but the benefits are limited. Developing of more specific serum markers and ultraso-nography parameters in order to determination of risks during pregnancy, would be very useful for preventive medicine and treatment of complications.