The effect of smoking in pregnancy on maternal serum inhibin A levels

To assess the effect of smoking on maternal serum, second-trimester: inhibi n A levels, we studied a database of 1277 women undergoing antenatal serum screening. There were 75 smokers, 1008 non-smokers and 194 women in whom sm oking status was undetermined. All groups were:matched for age, gestation a nd parity. The median level of inhibin A in smokers was 1.47 multiples of t he normal gestation-specific median (MOM) as compared with 1.01 MOM in non- smokers and 0.95 MOM in the undetermined group. The increase was highly sta tistically significant (p<0.0001, Wilcoxon rank sum test, two-tail). On the basis of these results we conclude that if inhibin A is used as a marker, adjustment for maternal smoking status may be necessary. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.