How accurate are placental growth factor, urate, lactate dehydrogenase and proteinuria in diagnosing preeclampsia and its severity?

Objective: The objective was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of serum and urinary placental growth factor (sPlGF and uPlGF, respectively), urate, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and proteinuria for diagnosing and differentiating between women with preeclampsia and women with a normal healthy pregnancy, gestational hypertension, and gestational proteinuria.

Study Design: Urine and blood samples were taken from pregnant women diagnosed with late-onset severe preeclampsia (30 patients), mild preeclampsia (30 patients), gestational hypertension without meeting the criteria for preeclampsia (30 patients), gestational proteinuria without meeting the criteria for preeclampsia (30 patients), and healthy pregnant control women (30 patients). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and to select the optimal cutoff points for different markers.

Outcomes of an isolated single umbilical artery in singleton pregnancy: a large study from the Middle East and Gulf region.

Objective: To assess the frequency and accuracy of prenatal diagnosis of a single umbilical artery (SUA) and to compare the fetal and neonatal outcome of isolated SUA to that of a normal three-vessel umbilical cord in a population from the Middle East and Gulf region.

Study Design: Data were collected from 37,500 singleton pregnancies that were scheduled for antenatal care and delivered at Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between May 2004 and December 2012. Comparisons between the groups were performed using a chi-square test or a Fisher exact test for the categorical variables, and Student's t test or Wilcoxon's rank-sum test were used for continuous variables.