[Premature rupture of membranes and maternal blood lead levels in early pregnancy]

Introduction and Objective: Premature rupture of membranes [PROM] is one of the leading causes of preterm delivery and Potential adverse in prenatal. Given the importance of certain factors and lack of it's predisposing to this complication, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between PROM and the mother's blood lead level in first half of pregnancy.

Materials and Methods: This longitudinal study has done on 110 pregnant women at 14-20 weeks gestational age at clinics in teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University in the years 1389-1390.Obtainig blood samples to measure lead in enrollment and demographic and pregnancy questionnaire was completed. Data were analyzed by SPSS16 software and Corelation Spearman, UNICODE EXTENDED CHARACTER 2, Man-Whitney U, Linear regression tests and P<0.05 was taken as the significant level.

Results: The averagematernal age 26/7 +/- 4/3 years, the average maternal blood lead level of 4/7 +/- 4/9 MICRO SIGN g/dl and premature rupture of membranes 6/8% was reported. According to chi-square test results between blood lead and PROM, there was no significant relationship [P =0/8].

Conclusion: In this study, results showed there was no significant relationship between blood lead levels and premature rupture of membranes.

[Evaluating the Relationship between Early Pregnancy Maternal Blood Lead Levels and neonatal anthropometric indices and Apgar scores]

Backgrounds: Low values of neonates' anthropometric indices are considered as an important factor in increased neonatal mortality. This research tried to examine the relationship between early pregnancy blood lead levels of pregnant women and their neonates' anthropometric indices at birth.

Materials and Methods: This longitudinal prospective study was carried out on 1033 pregnant women referred to prenatal clinics in Tehran. Upon entry into the study, a blood sample was taken to determine lead levels, and a demographic questionnaire was filled out for all participants and they were followed up with routine prenatal care till delivery. Anthropometric indices were extracted from the neonatal cards. In statistical analysis, pvalues< 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: The mean blood lead levels in mothers were 4.7 +/- 4.9 MICRO SIGNg/dl. Considering the results obtained by Spearman's correlation, there was a significant negative relationship between blood lead levels of mothers and 5-minute Apgar scores [p=0.002, r=0.09]. However, no significant relationship between blood lead levels and other indices was found. To evaluate the true effects of maternal blood lead levels and potentially effective factors on anthropometric indices, in linear regression analysis, only gestational age at delivery had a significant relationship with all anthropometric indices and 5-minute Apgar score of neonates [p<0.01].

Conclusion: The results showed that early pregnancy maternal blood lead levels were not related to anthropometric indices at birth, and the only important factor for improvement of neonates' anthropometric indices, was higher gestational age at the time of delivery.