A discriminant function for preeclampsia: case-control study of minor hemoglobins, red cell enzymes, and clinical laboratory values.

A case-control study was performed in eight pairs of women to determine whether preeclamptic women developed abnormalities in minor hemoglobins, glycolytic enzymes, or other blood components that might provide insight into the pathophysiology of preeclampsia, or that in combination might be used as a marker for the condition. These variables and standard clinical tests were analyzed as discriminators between preeclamptic and control women. The subjects were matched for age, ethnicity, parity, and gestational age. Blood samples were taken at the time of diagnosis of preeclampsia and at comparable gestational ages for matched normal controls. Variables differing significantly between groups included increases in uric acid (UA), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK), and mean platelet volume (MPV), and decreases in glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PD) in preeclamptic women compared to normal controls. Discriminant analysis revealed the following function to separate the groups: 0.7764 (UA) + 0.8086 (PGK) -0.7032 (G3PD) + 0.1399 (LDL) -0.2386 (MPV). A discriminant score of > or = 275 indicated a > or = 90% probability of preeclampsia. The results are consistent with perturbations in red cell glycolysis in preeclampsia. Further prospective studies are warranted to test the efficacy of this discriminant function in predicting preeclampsia.