Maternal serum human chorionic gonadotrophin levels in systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome

Maternal serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) levels were measured dur ing the second and the third trimesters of pregnancy in patients with eithe r systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or primary antiphospholipid syndrome ( APS). All results were expressed in multiples of the gestation-specific nor mal medians (MoM). The median MoM level in 17 samples from SLE patients was 1.48 compared with 0.79 MoM in 99 controls of similar gestation (p < 0.002 , Wilcoxon Rank sum test). In contrast the median MoM level in 19 samples f rom primary APS patients was only 1.14. These preliminary findings should b e further studied to evaluate the implications for Down syndrome screening, detection of SLE cases during pregnancy and the prediction of adverse outc ome in SLE gestations. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.