Mohammed Abbas Hasan, Haydar H. Alshalah, Nadia M. Al-Hilli
الملخص العربي
Summary
Preeclampsia is defined as hypertension associated with proteinuria arising de novo after the 20th week of gestation in a previously normotensive woman and resolving completely by the 6th postpartum week. It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. In UK, preeclampsia affects 3-5% of pregnancies. Its aetiology remains incompletely understood, and is considered as a disease of theories. One of these theories refers to the effect of heavy metals, trace, and ultra trace elements in the corresponding patients. In the present study some trace and ultra trace elements were estimated to identity their role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. This study was carried out in Babylon Teaching Hospital for Gynecology and Pediatrics, in Babylon Province, Hilla City. All samples were collected from November 2014 till February 2015. This is a case control study which included 120 women, sixty were patients diagnosed with preeclampsia in the third trimester and the other sixty were healthy pregnant women (controls) in the third trimester. Cases with age over 40, BMI > 30, previous history of pre-eclampsia, family history of pre-eclampsia, multiple pregnancy and hydrops fetalis, pre-existing hypertension or renal disease, pre-existing vascular disease, antiphospholipid syndrome, and smoking were excluded. Serum levels of iron, zinc, magnesium were measured by using a colorimetric method, while serum concentrations of copper, chromium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, and selenium were measured by using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometric technique.
The results were expressed as mean ± standard error of mean. T-test and the linear regression analysis were used for the determination of the level of significance. Statistical analysis were performed with StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 software. A P value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Serum total iron level was significantly higher in patients with pre-eclampsia compared to control group (186.498 μg/dl versus 94.392 , P value < 0.05). While no significant difference was found in molybdenum level between them (2.304 μg/dl versus 2.670, P value ˃ 0.05). Finally, serum total concentrations of the other elements were significantly lower in patients with pre-eclampsia compared to control group as illustrated below:
Copper (143.153 μg/dl versus 209.657 μg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Chromium (0.382 μg/dl versus 0.678 μg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Cobalt (0.143 μg/dl versus 0.330 μg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Magnesium (2.115 mg/dl versus 2.456 mg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Manganese (7.617 μg/dl versus 10.847 μg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Selenium (2.546 μg/dl versus 4.306 μg/dl, P value < 0.05)
Zinc (57.283 μg/dl versus 87.535 μg/dl, P value < 0.05).
In conclusion, alteration in the levels of serum trace and ultra trace elements could contribute to the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia.
محمد عباس حسن | Mohammed Abbas Hasan | 14068