A prospective cohort study on association of first-trimester serum biomarkers and risk of isolated foetal congenital heart defects

BACKGROUND This study aims to assess the association between first-trimester biomarkers in foetuses with a non-chromosomal congenital heart defect (CHD) and compares it to the matched healthy foetuses. METHOD Nuchal Translucency (NT), Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A (PAPP-A) and free beta-human Chorionic Gonadotropin (β-hCG) were evaluated in 56 isolated foetal heart defects and 224 controls. The CHDs were further divided into Critical CHD (C-CHD) and Non-critical CHD (N-CHD) groups. RESULTS The multiple of the median (MoM) values for PAPP-A were significantly lower (0.87 MoM vs. 0.92 MoM; p = 0.008) in the total CHD group than in controls. The median of foetal NT values was significantly higher in the total CHDs than in controls (1.16 MoM vs. 1.03 MoM; p