the comparison of ca125 levels in the normal pregnancy and threatened abortion

Background & objective: in pregnancy, the serum level of cancer antigen-125 (ca-125) increases in the first trimester and abortion. however, different studies reported conflicting results about the use of serum ca-125 to determine the prognosis of threatened abortion. in the present study, we try to determine if the measurement of ca-125 level could be used as a predictor of outcome in women with threatened abortion. materials & methods: this prospective case-control study was performed on 58 patients with threatened abortion and 58 healthy pregnant women with a gestational age of fewer than 20 weeks (as the control group). in both groups, serum ca-125 level was measured. the patients were followed to determine who completed the pregnancy period and who eventually miscarried. finally, the levels of ca-125 in these groups were compared. results: the mean age of patients was 28.47 and 27.84 in the case and control groups, respectively; there was no significant statistical difference between the two groups (95% ci: -1.94 to 3.18, p=0.632). also, there was no significant difference between them for bmi (95% ci: -1.09 to 1.38, p=0.813), gestational age (95% ci: -1.31 to 1.04, p=0.816), and parity (p=0.51). the mean serum level of ca-125 in the control group was 22.51 ± 6.82 iu/ml, and in the threatened abortion group was 27.70 ± 7.50 iu/ml. this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). of the patients, 51.72% with threatened abortion continued their pregnancy, and 48.28% eventually miscarried. the mean serum levels of ca-125 were 25.30±6.63 iu/ml and 30.28±7.63 iu/ml in patients who continued the pregnancy and miscarried, respectively (p=0.01). conclusion: a single measurement of the maternal ca-125 may be used as an available, inexpensive prognostic test to determine the outcome of threatened abortion. however, a small number of patients is the main limitation of the present study. more studies with a larger sample size are required to accept the role of maternal ca-125 in predicting the outcome of threatened miscarriage.