TY  - EJOU
AU  - Liu, Yanli 
AU  - Han, Fengzhen 
AU  - Zhuang, Jian 
AU  - Ou, Yanqiu 
AU  - Qu, Yanji 
AU  - Lin, Yanyan 
AU  - Zhang, Weina 
AU  - Wang, Haiping 
AU  - Huang, Liping 

TI  - Maternal Vascular Dysfunction in Congenital Heart Defects
T2  - Structural and Congenital Heart Disease

PY  - 2023
VL  - 18
IS  - 5
SN  - 3071-1738

AB  -  <b>Background:</b> Research on fetal congenital heart defect (CHD) mostly focuses on etiology and mechanisms. However, studies on maternal complications or pathophysiology are limited. Our objective was to determine whether vascular dysfunction exists in pregnant women carrying a fetus with congenital heart defects. <b>Methods:</b> We conducted a case-control study. 27 cases of pregnant women carrying a fetus with major CHD admitted to our hospital for delivery between April 2021 and August 2022 were selected. Every case was matched with about 2 pregnant complication-free controls without fetal abnormalities. The proangiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors and pregnancy outcomes were compared. <b>Results:</b> The proangiogenic factors include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and placental growth factor (PlGF). The anti-angiogenic factors involve soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and soluble endoglin (sEng). No differences were found in maternal plasma concentrations of PlGF, VEGF, and sFlt-1 between case-control groups when analyzed at 36 weeks ≤ gestational age (GA) < 39 weeks and 39 weeks ≤ GA ≤ 41 weeks. The concentrations of sEng in maternal plasma in the fetal CHD group were significantly higher than those in the control group: 0.60 (0.77) <i>vs.</i> 0.32 (0.26) ng/ml at 36 weeks ≤ GA < 39 weeks, <i>p</i> = 0.001 and 0.75 (0.55) <i>vs.</i> 0.28 (0.27) ng/ml at 39 weeks ≤ GA ≤ 41 weeks, <i>p < </i> 0.001. <b>Conclusion:</b> Vascular dysfunction exists in pregnant women with fetal congenital heart defects, manifesting significantly elevated sEng concentration at delivery.
KW  - Congenital heart defects; vascular dysfunction; placental growth factor; soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1; vascular endothelial growth factor; soluble endoglin; fetus; pregnancy; maternal complication

DO  - 10.32604/chd.2023.030511