The effect of parity on lipid profile in normal pregnant women.

ABSTRACT

A cross sectional study was carried out at Ramathibodi Hospital between June and August 1997. The objective of this study was to determine maternal serum lipid levels at delivery and the effect of parity on maternal lipid profile. Study population was normal term pregnant women aged 20-35 years who delivered normal infants with a birthweight > or = 2,500 grams. Maternal serum lipid levels at delivery were determined from 177 normal term pregnant women. Their mean age was 27.6 +/- 4.5 years. The first parity (P1) was about 52 per cent, whereas, the second and third parity (P2 and P3) were 37 and 11 per cent, respectively. Mean maternal serum total cholesterol (TC) levels in P1, P2 and P3 were 258.3 +/- 46.9, 266.7 +/- 47.1 and 295.7 +/- 61.2 mg/dl, respectively. Serum triglyceride (TG) levels in P1, P2 and P3 were 265.2 +/- 81.1, 280.3 +/- 72.1 and 260.7 +/- 82.8 mg/dl, respectively; serum low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) in P1, P2 and P3 were 136.9 +/- 45.2, 144.9 +/- 43.3 and 173.4 +/- 62.1 mg/dl, respectively; and serum high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were 64.6 +/- 16.6, 65.7 +/- 17.8, 67.2 +/- 16.0 mg/dl, respectively. Serum TC and LDL-C levels increased with parity. There was a significant difference between maternal TC and parity (F = 4.702, p = 0.01) as well as LDL-C and parity (F = 4.883, p < 0.01), especially P1 and P3. There was no significant difference between maternal TG and parity as to HDL-C and parity (p > 0.05).