Low papp-a levels

[Jay Tray]

Can anyone shed some light on having low PAPP-A levels. I am 14 weeks pregnant and my bloodtests and ultrasound all came back fantastic except for my PAPP-A levels which were .44. I am pregnant with fraternal twins and I am 35 years old. My genetic counselor suggested I have an amnio to rule out Down's and any other chromosonal abnormalties. If that comes back perfect than I have read about many other problems that can occur later in pregnancy. Has anyone had such low PAPP-A levels and had healthy babies? Has anyone had complications due to low PAPP-A levels?
Please inform, I am worried sick over this.
Thank you

[whitley]

Never heard of a PAPP-A level. Not sure what that is. Sorry.

[superclam]

Jay, when I was pregnant with twins 3 years ago, I was told that blood tests (the triple screen) were ineffective at screening for abnormalities because you have two fetuses and there is no way to tell the hormonal levels that each fetus is generating. I took the amnio option, since it is done on each sac and you know for sure for each baby. One of the twins ended up vanishing weeks before the amnio, but I went through the amnio any way.

With this pregnancy, I decided to do the screening and not the amnio. I had my screen come back positive because my PAPP-A was 0.45 or something like that; don't remember exactly, but it was just under 0.50 - I have a singleton this time. I opted, after much agony this time to do the amnio (it'll be in 2 weeks). I am 40, and my overall score was 1:58 for Downs.

Did you also do an NT scan? The reason I ask is that if your HCG was normal, and your NT scan measurement was really low, the PAPP-A may not mean that much in terms of chromosomal abnormalities. But I read that a low PAPP-A can sometimes mean other non-chromosome problems - such as intrauterine growth restrictions etc.

Here is a link from a maternal-fetal scpeciallist explaining Papp-A.
Low Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein A (PAPP-A) and Pregnancy Outcome

Anyhow, I wanted to respond to you to bring your post up in line to give it a chance to be spotted by someone who can tell us something. I am also curious about anyone with low Papp-A and what they experienced. Good luck!