Aldosterone hormone levels in preeclamptic women in comparison with normal pregnancy

Abstract

Objective To assess the level of aldosterone hormone in preeclamptic pregnant woman and comparing it with normal pregnancy. Patients and methods A prospective case–control study that was conducted on 80 pregnant women with gestational age from 28 to 40 weeks and attended Al Zahraa University Hospital, Al Azhar University, in the period from December 2019 to December 2020. The selected participants were divided into two groups: group I (control group) (n=40), which included 40 normal pregnant women, and group II (n=40) (cases group), which is further subdivided into two subgroups: subgroup A (n=20): cases with mild preeclampsia, and subgroup B (n=20) cases with severe preeclampsia. Approximately 5 ml of venous blood was collected once from both study group and control group by antecubital venipuncture, using a sterile disposable syringe, without using elastic band tourniquet. Half of the amount collected was transferred immediately into commercially prepared concentration of ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid containers. The remaining half was allowed to clot and the serum was obtained by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 10 min or the remaining investigations including serum aldosterone concentration estimation by enzyme immunoassay. Results Regarding the serum aldosterone levels, there was a highly statistically significant difference among control, mild preeclampsia, and severe preeclampsia groups (P=0.003). The mean aldosterone of the study participants was 0.76, with SD of 0.27, and ranged from 0.2 to 1.39 in control group; 0.83, with SD of 0.13, and ranged from 0.59 to 1.06 weeks in mild preeclampsia group; and 1.10, with SD of 0.59, and ranged from 0.65 to 2.88 in severe preeclampsia group. Conclusion The aldosterone hormone may play an important role in the pathogenesis of elevated blood pressure in this pathological state and may be used in the prediction of the severity of preeclampsia.