Soluble endoglin as a second-trimester marker for preeclampsia.

Objective: The objective of this investigation was to characterize soluble endoglin (sEng) concentrations in second-trimester serum of women who either develop preeclampsia or have a normal pregnancy.

Study Design: Single second-trimester serum samples obtained from healthy, nonsmoking women who subsequently developed severe preeclampsia (n = 48) or from healthy nonsmoking women who experienced a normal pregnancy (n = 56) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data were reported as mean +/- standard deviation.

Results: Maternal age or gestational age at time of sample was not different between the 2 groups. Patients who later developed preeclampsia delivered earlier, had smaller infants, and had a higher mean arterial pressure than controls. Patients who later developed severe preeclampsia had elevated sEng, compared with those with normal pregnancy (6.19 +/- 2.1 vs 5.00 +/- 1.0 ng/mL, P = .02).

Conclusion: Soluble endoglin is elevated in second-trimester maternal serum in patients destined to develop severe preeclampsia.