Choroidal Thickness May Be Associated with Serum Placental Growth Factor in Women with Severe Preeclampsia

Abstract

Purpose : Levels of placental growth factor (PlGF), a proangiogenic factor made by the placenta, increase early in pregnancy but later fall as soluble VEGF receptor (sFlt-1) levels increase. These changes occur earlier and are more pronounced in preeclampsia. Our purpose is to determine if an association exists between PlGF and choroidal thickness (CT) in women with severe preeclampsia (sPE).

Methods : This is an IRB-approved, prospective cohort study of 30 women with sPE and 37 normotensive controls matched by ethnicity and parity and recruited in the immediate postpartum period. Exclusion criteria included chronic or gestational hypertension and diabetes. All subjects underwent enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (EDI SD-OCT). Heidelberg Eye Explorer software was used to measure CT (µm). ELISA was used to measure serum PlGF (pg/ml).

Results : PlGF did not differ significantly between groups (21.16 ± 7.93 pg/ml in cases vs. 18.73 ± 6.42 pg/ml in controls, p = 0.169). Amongst cases, CT was correlated with PlGF (r² = 0.280, p = 0.004 OD; r² = 0.228, p = 0.010 OS). No correlation was seen in controls (r² = 0.027, p = 0.339).

Conclusions : Though serum PlGF levels do not differ significantly between postpartum women with severe preeclampsia and those with normotensive pregnancies, choroidal thickness is more strongly associated with PlGF in cases as compared to controls. Further studies of serum markers of preeclampsia could help identify women at risk of developing more severe eye disease.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.