The study measured a hormone called kisspeptin-10 in pregnant women and found that levels are lower in those who develop preeclampsia, a pregnancy‑related blood‑pressure problem. While the hormone shows some link to other pregnancy hormones, the test isn’t reliable enough to be used as a routine screening tool.

To evaluate plasma kisspeptin-10 (KP-10) as a marker for preeclampsia and assess its relation to altered reproductive hormones in preeclamptic pregnant women. First time pregnant women (n = 100) at 20 weeks of gestation participated in this study and divided into preeclamptics (n = 60) and normotensives (n = 40). KP-10, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG), estradiol (E2) and progesterone were evaluated during 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy for all women. Kisspeptin-10 levels were reduced in preeclampsia (PE) women compared with normotensive pregnancies. In the 2nd trimester, area under receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.662, positive and negative predictive values were 32.8 and 94.6, and test sensitivity and specificity were 55% and 87.5%, respectively. In the 3rd trimester, area under ROC curve was 0.747 positive and negative predictive values were 22.2 and 97.3, and test sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 67.5%, respectively. In PE patients, plasma KP-10 demonstrated an inverse correlation with E2 (during the 2nd trimester), LH and FSH (during the 3rd trimester), and positively correlated with β-hCG (during the 3rd trimester). This study showed significantly reduced plasma KP-10 levels in PE women. This suggests that KP-10 may play an important role in the pathophysiology of PE. Therefore, combined with previous studies, to diagnose the PE, testing for maternal KP-10 plasma levels may be useful as an effective screening, but because of low positive predictive value and inadequate test sensitivity, screening cannot be recommended. Furthermore, KP-10 in PE patients demonstrated significant positive correlation with β-hCG.