Abstract
Background: Missed abortion in early pregnancy is a common gynecological condition and the incidence has been increasing presenting itself as public health problem. This study aimed to examine stress, cortisol concentration, and altered IL-12 levels in women who experienced missed abortions. Methods: Women with missed abortions (n = 40) were matched with control women of the same age in the same stage of pregnancy (n = 30). Participants filled out a survey about common stress factors. Venous blood samples were taken from the patients at 7:00 a.m. IL-12 concentrations were detected by ELISA, and serum cortisol was measured by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Results: Women with missed abortions reported significantly more common stressors, and their serum cortisol and IL-12 concentrations were significantly higher than those of the women with normal pregnancies (all P < 0.05). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the power of the studied parameters to predict women at risk for missed abortion. IL-12 performed the best in predicting women with missed abortions as it had the highest area under the