Activin A and Follistatin as Biomarkers for Ectopic Pregnancy and Missed Abortion

Table 2

Activin A and follistatin (FS) levels and activin A/FS ratio in normal (𝑛=33) versus failed pregnancies (𝑛=60).

Pregnancy outcome
	Normal (𝑛=33)	Failed pregnancies (𝑛=60)		𝑃 value
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean difference (95% CI)
Activin A	843 (338)	359 (204)	484 (375–592)	<0.001
Follistatin	5011 (1786)	3350 (2922)	1661 (546–2777)	0.004
Activin A/follistatin ratio	0.2 (0.17)	0.149 (0.1)	0.054 (0.000–0.11)	0.050
	Abortion (MA) (𝑛=30)	Ectopic (EP) (𝑛=30)		𝑃 value
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean difference (95% CI)
Activin A	442 (248)	277 (94)	164.61 (35–294)	0.013
Follistatin	3510 (2742)	3189 (3130)	321 (−1008, 1650)	0.632
Activin A/follistatin ratio	0.167 (0.114)	0.131 (0.080)	0.036 (−0.029, 0.101)	0.276

We evaluated whether activin A and follistatin serum markers levels (pg/mL) and their ratio differ between healthy pregnancies (IUP) and failed pregnancies (MA + EP) and MA and EP. Analysis of variance was conducted in order to perform orthogonal contrasts comparing IUP to MA and EP, as well as MA to EP by using Helmert contrasts. 𝑃 values indicate the clinically important comparison of MA to IUP. Comparison between EP and MA produced statistically significant differences in the case of activin A (𝑃=0.013).