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Background Recent evidence suggests early screening of preeclampsia and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) would benefit pregnancies followed by subsequent prophylactic use of aspirin. Multi-marker models have shown capability of predicting preeclampsia and SGA in first trimester. Yet the clinical feasibility of combined screening model for Chinese pregnancies has not been fully assessed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the applicability of a multi-marker screening model to the prediction of preeclampsia and SGA in first trimester particularly among Chinese population. Methods Three thousand two hundred seventy pregnancies meeting the inclusion criteria took first-trimester screening of preeclampsia and SGA. A prior risk based on maternal characteristics was evaluated, and a posterior risk was assessed by combining prior risk with multiple of median (MoM) values of mean arterial pressure (MAP), serum placental growth factor (PLGF) and pregnancy associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A). Both risks were calculated by Preeclampsia PREDICTOR™ software, Perkin Elmer. Screening performance of prior and posterior risks for early and late preeclampsia by using PREDICTOR software was shown by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves. The estimation of detection rates and false positive rates of delivery with both preeclampsia and SGA was made. Results Eight cases developed early preeclampsia (0.24%) and 35 were diagnosed as late preeclampsia (1.07%). Five with early preeclampsia and ten with late preeclampsia later delivered SGA newborns (0.46%); 84 without preeclampsia gave birth to the SGAs (2.57%). According to ROC curves, posterior risks performed better than prior risks in terms of preeclampsia, especially in early preeclampsia. At 10% false positive rate, detection rates of early and late preeclampsia were 87.50 and 48.57%, detection rates of early and late SGA were 41.67 and 28.00%, respectively. For SGA, detection rates in cases with preeclampsia were much higher than those in absence of it. Conclusions This study demonstrates that combined screening model could be useful for predicting early preeclampsia in Chinese pregnancies. Furthermore, the performance of SGA screening by same protocol is strongly associated with preeclampsia. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2455-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) reference intervals are essential for screening and diagnosing thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to establish method- and trimester-specific TSH and FT4 reference intervals in pregnant Chinese women using the Beckman Coulter UniCel™ DxI 600. Methods A cross-sectional dataset analysis was performed. A total of 3507 participants were recruited, and 2743 were eligible for analysis to set reference intervals. TSH, FT4, and thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) levels were analyzed with the Beckman Coulter UniCel™ DxI 600 Access® immunoassay system. Ranges between the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles were defined as reference intervals for TSH and FT4. Results The calculated reference intervals for the first, second, and third trimesters were TSH: 0.06-3.13, 0.07-4.13 and 0.15-5.02 mIU/L, respectively, and FT4: 8.72-15.22, 7.10-13.55 and 6.16-12.03 pmol/L, respectively. Conclusions Our reference intervals for TSH and FT4 are distinct from the ranges reported in the DxI 600 instruction manual and previously reported data, confirming the importance of method-specific reference intervals.