Association between elevated sFlt-1/PlGF ratio and obstetric outcomes in hospitalized patients with preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific syndrome characterized by hypertension and proteinuria or hypertension and end-organ dysfunction with or without proteinuria after 20 gestational weeks.Maternal and fetal complications are a leading cause of maternal and neonatal death worldwide.Antiangiogenic factor, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and the pro-angiogenic factor, placental growth factor (PlGF) are markers of angiogenic disbalance and higher SFLT/PLGF ratio may correlate with adverse pregnancy outcome.To investigate the relationship between angiogenic biomarker levels and obstetric outcome parameters in hospitalized patients diagnosed with preeclampsia.This retrospective observational study was conducted over a two-year period at the University Clinic for Obstetrics and Gynecology.The study included 100 pregnant women diagnosed with preeclampsia who were admitted to the peripartal intensive care unit.All participants underwent testing for the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio using the Elecsys immunoassays.Based on their sFlt-1/PlGF ratio (<200 or 200), the women were equally divided into two groups.Maternal and neonatal outcomes were assessed at discharge using data obtained from the patients' obstetric records.No significant association of the group ratio to which the women belong and the vaginal birth (p=0,4489), induction of labor (p=0,6117), caesarean section (p=0,1582), and twins (p=0,7556) was found.Preterm labour and placental abruption were significantly associated with the group with ratio 200 for p=0,0001 and p=0,0302 respectively.There was significantly lower birth weight (p=0,00001) and birth length (p=0,00001), AS/ 1 min was significantly lower in the newborns of the mothers from the group with ratio 200 compared to the one from the group with ratio < 200 (p=0,00001).We found association with some form of unfavourable perinatal outcome in cases of preeclampsia with sFlt-1/PlGF ratio ratio 200.