Increased Umbilical Cord PAI-1 Levels in Placental Insufficiency Are Associated with Fetal Hypoxia and Angiogenesis

Table 1

Characteristics of IUGR patients with PI and gestational age matched control pregnancies.

	Control	PI
Subjects ()
Male	7	13
Female	5	5
Total:	12	18
Birth weight (g)	2172 (723)	1469 (637)
Gestational age (wk)	33.1 (4.1)	34.1 (3.8)
Birth weight percentile	51 ()	1.5 (3.0)
Caesarean/vaginal	6/6	12/6
Maternal age (y)	27 ()	29 ()
Placental weight (g)	502 (156)	372 (151)
Placental resistance	0.63 (0.09)	0.90 (0.23)
Maternal BP
Systolic	114 ()	129 (16)
Diastolic	71 ()	78 ()
APGAR (5 min)	8.8 (0.4)	7.9 (2.3)

Comparison of means was by -test or Mann-Whitney test following a normality test , 1). Standard deviation is indicated in brackets. Fetal blood samples were collected immediately following either vaginal or Caesarean section delivery from the clamped umbilical cord vein by venipuncture in EDTA coated tubes. Blood gas values were measured in the clinical lab and values abstracted from fetal charts.
Placental resistance index from the last umbilical cord Doppler ultrasound prior to delivery. All PI subjects were diagnosed with the vascular pathology based on abnormally high resistance index for GA in the days preceding delivery; the 5 of 12 controls that were tested are indicated.