Prediction of preeclampsia by early pregnancy maternal homocysteine measurement

ABSTRACT

To study whether maternal early pregnancy homocysteine level can be used as a screening test for occurrence of subsequent preeclampsia. 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. 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 micromol/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 micromol/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. 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