Assessment of Umbilical Cord Plasma Homocysteine Concentration in Parturient Women with Preeclampsia in Comparing with Normal Healthy Parturient Women

Abstract

Background: Preeclampsia is a syndrome which is common in obstetrics practice and considered one of the most causes that lead to maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Preeclampsia is multi-system disorder happened in pregnancy by new onset hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. Homocysteine is homologue of amino acid cysteine which is found elevated in preedampsia, mechanisms of disease linking homocysteine to preeclampsia are complex and still incompletely understood. To date, vascular endothelial cell dysfunction that is provoked by an elevated level of homocysteine is suggested to be the most important connection.
Aim: To estimate the level of umbilical cord plasma homocysteine concentration in parturient women with preeclampsia in comparison with those who carried normal healthy pregnancy and to look any fetal compromise because of homocysteine level.
Patients and methods: A case control (comparative) study, the study carried out in Al Zahraa Maternity and Pediatric Teaching Hospital at Al- Najaf City. Umbilical cord plasma homocysteine was estimated in 96 pregnant women divided into 2 groups. Group I (study group) consist of 48 pregnant women with preeclampsia. Group II (control group) consist of 48 normal healthy pregnant women in labor their gestational age was from 24 to 40 weeks of gestation and an age from 16 – 42 years.
Results: Umbilical cord homocysteine level is seen higher in preeclamptic patients than normal healthy parturient women. The homocysteine level of preeclamptic group was found to be with of (mean +SD=8.11 + 3.5) which was higher than control group (mean +SD= 1.66 +0.11); p. value > 0.001 statistically significant.
Conclusions: Umbilical cord plasma homocysteine is significantly elevated in preeclamptic pregnant parturient women in comparison to normally healthy pregnant women