The effect of low-dose aspirin on serum placental growth factor levels in a high-risk PREDO cohort

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p><em>Objectives:</em> Our first aim was to study the longitudinal changes of serum placental growth factor (PlGF) concentration between 12⁺⁰ and 28⁺⁰ weeks of gestation in the prospective PREDO cohort. Our second aim was to study the effect of low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (LDA; 100 mg/day), started before the 14th week of gestation, on PlGF concentration.</p><p><em>Study design:</em> Blood samples were collected at 12⁺⁰–14⁺⁰, 18⁺⁰–20⁺⁰ and 26⁺⁰–28⁺⁰ weeks of gestation in 101 women without and 309 with clinical risk factors for pre-eclampsia. Risk-women were divided into two groups: to those who had medium risk for pre-eclampsia and to those who had high risk for pre-eclampsia. Finally there were seven groups according to risk, treatment (no prevention/placebo/LDA) and outcome measure pre-eclampsia. Longitudinal changes in the PlGF concentration between groups were compared. To investigate the effect of LDA on serum PlGF concentration, placebo (N = 62) and LDA (N = 61) groups were compared. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze differences in PlGF levels between the groups.</p><p><em>Results:</em> The increase in serum PlGF concentration was higher in LDA than in placebo group (time × group effect, p = 0.046). The increase in serum PlGF concentration during pregnancy was lower in high-risk women who had placebo and developed pre-eclampsia and in medium-risk women who developed pre-eclampsia compared to the other women (time × group effect, p < 0.001). There were no differences in PlGF change between low-risk women, medium-risk women who did not develop pre-eclampsia, high-risk women in the placebo group without pre-eclampsia and high-risk women in the LDA group with and without pre-eclampsia (p = 0.15).</p><p><em>Conclusions:</em> Our finding suggests an association between LDA started before 14 weeks of gestation and higher increase in serum PlGF concentration.</p></div>