Introduction: Preeclampsia is one of the major causes of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Its complications include but are not limited to eclampsia, intracerebral haemorrhage and cardiovascular diseases in the later stages of life. The combination of clinical and risk variables and a panel of multiple biomarkers will help clinicians in risk stratification and prognostication of clinical outcomes among preeclamptic women. We evaluated MMP-9 (matrix metalloproteinase - 9) and ST2 (suppression of tumorigenicity 2) for utility as biomarkers and for predicting maternal and foetal outcomes in women with preeclampsia.
Methods: This prospective cohort study involved 49 preeclamptic women and 80 healthy controls. Biomarkers were measured in plasma using ELISA. The patients were followed up to assess maternal and foetal outcomes.
Results: The mean value of MMP-9 was 2.42 ng/mL in the preeclamptic group and 2.67 ng/mL in controls. The mean value of ST2 (1937.4 ± 747.81) in the preeclamptic group was high compared to the control group (1005.7 ± 683.6) and the difference was significant (P = 0.0001). The study population was divided into those with high and low MMP-9 and those with high and low ST2. Lower levels of MMP-9 seemed to be related to both early and late onset preeclampsia. The ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve did not show the ability to predict maternal and foetal outcomes.
Discussion: Our study demonstrated that women with preeclampsia had low MMP-9 and high ST2 compared to healthy pregnant women. But neither of the biomarkers could predict complications of preeclampsia.
Keywords: Circulatory biomarkers; Maternal outcomes; Matrix metalloproteinase 9; Preeclampsia; Suppression of tumorigenicity 2.
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