Hyperferritinemia worsens the perinatal outcomes of conceptions of pregnancies with preeclampsia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To analyze the prevalence of hyperferritinemia in pregnant women with preeclampsia and its association with adverse perinatal outcomes. METHODS: A cross-sectional study carried out in 2017 with a convenience sample of pregnant women with preeclampsia attended at a high-risk maternity hospital in Alagoas, Brazil. Socioeconomic, lifestyle, clinical and biochemical data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Type of delivery, gestational age, weight and length at birth, and Apgar score were analyzed as outcome variables. Women were dichotomized according to the serum ferritin level (150 ng/mL). Poisson regression models were used to analyze the effect of hyperferritinemia on the outcome variables. Estimates were presented as prevalence ratio with 95% confidence intervals (PR [95% CI]). RESULTS: Based on the Fisher's exact statistical teste and in the proportions of the neonatal outcome (birth weight), with a statistical significance of 5%, the statistical power of the sample studied was 83%. Two hundred six pregnant women with preeclampsia were recruited, which 8.74% presented hyperferritinemia. Except for ferritin level, there were no differences in C-reactive protein (CRP), hemoglobin, Glutamate Oxaloacetate Transaminase (GOT) and Pyruvic Glutamic Transaminase (PGT) levels between women with or without hyperferritinemia. After adjusting for potential confounders, hyperferritinemia was associated with low birth weight (2.19 [2.13-3.89 95%CI]), low birth length (7.76 [2.52-23.8 95% CI]) and being born small for gestational age (3.14 [1.36-7.28 95% CI]). CONCLUSION: In the presence of hyperferritinemia, preeclampsia patients were associated with a higher rate of unfavorable neonatal outcomes.

Effects of ketogenic diets on the occurrence of pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus of rats.

Two sources of medium-chain triglycerides--triheptanoin with anaplerotic properties and coconut oil with antioxidant features--have emerged as promising therapeutic options for the management of pharmacoresistant epilepsy. We investigated the effects of ketogenic diets (KDs) containing coconut oil, triheptanoin, or soybean oil on pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE) in rats. Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups and fed a control diet (7% lipids) or a KD containing soybean oil, coconut oil, or triheptanoin (69.8% lipids). The ketogenic and control diets had a lipid:carbohydrate + protein ratio of 1:11.8 and 3.5:1, respectively. SE was induced in all rats 20 days after initiation of the dietary treatment, through the administration of pilocarpine (340 mg/kg; i.p.). The latency, frequency, duration, and severity of seizures before and during SE were observed with a camcorder. SE was aborted after 3 h with the application of diazepam (5 mg/kg; i.p.). The rats in the triheptanoin-based KD group needed to undergo a higher number of seizures to develop SE, as compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Total weight gain, intake, energy intake, and feed efficiency coefficient, prior to induction of SE, differed between groups (P < 0.05), where the triheptanoin-based KD group showed less weight gain than all other groups, less energy intake than the Control group and intermediate values of feed efficiency coefficient between Control and other KDs groups. Triheptanoin-based KD may have a neuroprotective effect on the establishment of SE in Wistar rats.