Objective: To establish the plasma evolution of prothrombin fragments 1+2 (F 1+2), thrombin-antithrombin III complexes (TAT), fibrin fragment D-Dimers (DD), von Willebrand factor antigen (vWf), Type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor antigen (PAI) and blood platelet count during normal pregnancy and to compare these values with those obtained in hypertensive or pre-eclamptic pregnancies.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Subjects: Forty-seven healthy pregnant women with gestational age ranging between 5 and 40 weeks, and fourteen women with gestational age ranging between 25 and 38 weeks presenting with either gestational hypertension (n = 4) or pre-eclampsia (n = 10). Numbers of nulliparous women in the control, hypertension and pre-eclampsia groups were 13/47 (28%), 1/4 (25%) and 9/10 (90%), respectively.
Results: All six markers increased with gestational age in normal pregnant women (P < 0.01). Using the upper limit of 95% prediction interval obtained from regression curves as normality threshold, TAT showed the best sensitivity (71% vs < 30% for F1+2, DD, vWf, PAI and platelet count).
Conclusion: TAT appears to be an interesting marker for detecting haemostatic system alterations in pregnancies complicated by hypertension or pre-eclampsia. A large prospective study to determine its clinical usefulness for such complicated pregnancies is currently in progress.