Does Endometriosis Affect PAPP-A Concentration in First Trimester Fetal Screening Test?

Maria Caterina Corigliano, Federica Martelli, Maria Vittoria Capogna, Antonella Bruno, Roberto Sorge, Simona Sarta, Emilio Piccione, Adalgisa Pietropolli
In: Journal of Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Disorders · 2016 · vol. 8(3) , pp. 94–100 · doi:10.5301/je.5000249 · W2522093332
Observational OA: closed CC0
View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found that women with deep endometriosis have significantly higher serum PAPP-A concentrations, which may confound first-trimester aneuploidy screening.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Objective Pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) is a macromolecular glycoprotein. The peritoneal fluid of women affected by endometriosis shows a significant increase of PAPP-A levels. Given the important role of PAPP-A in first trimester screening test, we wondered if its presence in the peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis could affect biochemical parameters of the test performed during pregnancy. Methods A prospective study enrolled 78 women with singleton pregnancy who performed combined test between 11 + 0 and 13 + 6 weeks of gestation: 25 women with previous histological diagnosis of endometriosis and 53 women without. All patients were sampled to determine PAPP-A concentrations. Serum levels of PAPP-A were expressed in UI/L and in MoM (multiples of median). The two groups – endometriosis women and non-endometriosis women – were compared in order to find a possible different concentration of serum PAPP-A. Results We found an increased concentration of both PAPP-A UI/L and PAPP-A MoM in deep endometriosis patients versus ovarian endometriosis with significant difference in PAPP-A MoM (p = 0.018). We also found a significant association between the stage of the disease and PAPP-A UI/L and MoM levels (PAPP-A UI/L p = 0.05, PAPP-A MoM p = 0.01). Conclusions Women with deep endometriosis show increased serum PAPP-A concentrations compared to women with ovarian endometriosis. Likewise, women with moderate or severe stage of the disease show increased serum PAPP-A concentrations compared to women with minimum or mild disease. This increase could affect first trimester aneuploidy screening test and endometriosis could represent a confounding factor in the calculation of aneuploidy risk.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (41)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-11T06:28:45.473802+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK