Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in pre-eclampsia

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted on forty subjects, twenty of them were normal pregnant control subjects [group I] and twenty pre-eclamptic patients [group II]. All groups were subjected to full history taking, careful clinical examination and laboratory investigations that included vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and Doppler ultrasonography of umbilical artery. The results showed a significant increase in vasoactive intestinal polypeptide level in the pre-eclamptic group than the control group. The increase may represent a powerful compensatory mechanism to restore vascular perfusion to different organs including uteroplacental unit. We suggest that vasoactive intestinal polypeptide or its analogues can be used in the treatment of preeclamptic disorder