Study the levels of AFP, HCG and UE3 in pregnant women and their relation with gestational age and the age of the pregnant woman

ABSTRACT

AFP considers as important factor in the prenatal diagnosis of malformations and genetic abnormalities in fetus, since its level, in pregnant women, changes in the case of fetus malformation. So our study aimed to evaluate the change of the levels of serum AFP during pregnancy, and the relation between the levels of AFP and the levels of HCG and unconjugated Estriol 3 with the prenatal diagnosis of fetus malformations, to evaluate this procedure as non invasive prenatal diagnosis method. When HCG and unconjugated Estriol 3 determination is combined with AFP determination, it increases the sensitivity and the specifity of the method more than only AFP determination, considering both of the pregnant woman age and the gestational age. The study included 84 woman distributed into the following groups 20 unpregnant women aged between 20-35 years, 12 pregnant women aged between 16-20 years, 33 pregnant women aged between 21-30 years, 19 pregnant women older than 31 years old, also we divided the pregnant women according to the gestational age, which determined by Ultrasound into 34 pregnant women in fourth month, 28 pregnant women in fifth month, 2 pregnant women in sixth month. The AFP and HCG were assayed by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. We found a strong correlation between gestational age and AFP levels [r = 0.86, p < 0.0001], between gestational age and HCG levels [r = 0.67, p < 0.0001], and between gestational age and uE3 [r = 0.85, p = 0.0001], but the correlation between the age of preganant woman and AFP levels was weak [r = 0.21, p = 0.088], also for the correlation between the age of pregnant woman and HCG levels [r = 0.30, p = 0.019], and no correlation between the age of pregnant woman and uE3 levels [r = 0.045, P = 0.8]