Association of angiogenin and interleukin-6 levels in cervical discharge during early pregnancy, together with its outcome

ObjectiveTo investigate the association between the cervical angiogenin and interleukin-6 levels and its outcome during early pregnancy. MethodsOne hundred and seventy-fi ve pregnant women were included consecutively at the time of their fi rst prenatal visit after less than 10 weeks of gestation.The gestational age was calculated according to their menstrual history and/or ultrasonography.We measured the cervical angiogenin and interleukin-6 levels using ELISA kits.We also measured the maternal serum progesterone concentrations using radioimmunoassay.Spontaneous abortion was defi ned as when a pregnancy ended spontaneously within 20 weeks of gestation.If an index pregnancy lasted longer than 20 weeks of gestation, it was regarded as showing a normal pregnancy outcome. ResultsFifty-four pregnancies were excluded because of an incomplete study (n=36) or follow-up loss (n=18).Of the remaining 121 pregnancies, spontaneous abortion occurred in 10 pregnancies (8.3%) in which there were no significant gestational agedependent changes in the maternal serum progesterone, cervical angiogenin, and interleukin-6 levels.The maternal serum progesterone, cervical angiogenin, and interleukin-6 levels were not signifi cantly different between the spontaneous abortion group and the normal control group.However, the cervical angiogenin level was significantly decreased in the groups with discordant gestational age and spontaneous abortion compared to the group with concordant gestational age (median, 798.0 pg/mL vs. 723.4pg/mL vs. 1039.8pg/mL; inter-quartile range, 222.8-1054.7 pg/mL vs. 257.1-1213.3pg/mL vs. 480.4-1534.4pg/mL) (P<0.041). ConclusionFirst trimester cervical angiogenin measurement may be valuable for predicting the early pregnancy outcome.