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Prediction of Preeclampsia by Early Pregnancy Maternal Homocysteine
Measurement
Osama Ali Elkelani1, Ashraf abd El Raouf Dawood2,
Ayman Kelany Abd El Hamed2
1Department
of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2Department of
Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Menofiya University
Tanta Med. Sc. J 2007; 2(3):43-48
Article type: Original article
Aim: to study whether maternal early pregnancy
homocysteine level can be used as a screening test for occurrence of
subsequent preeclampsia. Patients & Methods: a prospective
randomized study including 16 women (patients) and 22 pregnant women
(controls). Blood samples were taken to measure the plasma total
homocysteine (tHcy) level at 8 and 32 weeks of gestation. Neonatal
weight was also determined. Results: Geometric means (± standard
error of the mean ‘SEM’) of the tHcy concentrations at 8 w of
gestation for the patients and controls groups are 7.73 ± 0.03 and
5.72 ± 0.01 µmol/L respectively. Geometric means ± SEM of the tHcy
concentrations at 32 w of gestation for the patients and controls
groups are 5.48 ± 0.11 and 5.21 ± 0.17 µmol/L respectively.
Geometric means ± SEM of the newborn weight for the patients and
controls groups are 2890 ± 29.9 and 3342 ±25.8 gm respectively. When
comparing tHcy concentrations of the patients group at 8 and 32
gestational weeks, there is a highly significant increase of the
tHcy at 8 w (p< 0.0001) with 95% confidence interval (1.75- 2.93)
with correlation coefficient (r) (0.16) and R squared 0.82.
Conclusion: early maternal homocysteine measurement could be used as
a predictor test for preeclampsia. Neonates of mothers with high
early pregnancy (tHcy) have a significant loss of weight.
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