WEDNESDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with triploid molar pregnancies are at very low risk of developing persistent trophoblastic disease, according to a study published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Isa Niemann, M.D., of the University Hospital of Aarhus in Denmark, and colleagues studied 270 histologically confirmed hydatidiform moles, classified by ploidy using karyotyping and flow cytometry. Analysis of microsatellite polymorphisms was used to determine the parental origin of the genome.
Out of 105 women with triploid molar pregnancies, none developed persistent trophoblastic disease. However, 28 of 162 patients with diploid molar pregnancies developed persistent trophoblastic disease. Persistent disease did not develop in patients with a diploid mole and an initial hCG level below 49,000 units per liter. An hCG below this level may be a predictor of low risk, but it requires confirmation in larger studies, the authors say.
"Further studies of low risk factors, such as low initial se-hCG, for diploid molar pregnancies are important. Our observations furthermore imply that diploid and triploid moles possibly represent two different biologic entities with different clinical properties," the authors conclude. These data combined with previous studies suggest that surveillance programs for persistent trophoblastic disease in patients with triploid molar pregnancies can be shortened, the authors state.
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