Assessment of oxidative and cardiovascular changes in pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Federal Medical Centre, Owerri Nigeria

Abstract

Background: In pregnancy which is a physiological state that is accompanied by high energy demand, there is an increased intake and utilization of oxygen, hence augmented levels of oxidative changes that are associated with a lot of risks, one of which is cardiovascular diseases. This research aims to investigate the oxidative changes that occur among pregnant women by determining the levels of High Sensitivity c-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) and Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein (OxLDL) in first, second and third trimesters. Materials and Methodology: A total of 60 pregnant women were recruited for the study. Twenty (20) pregnant women each from the three trimesters while Twenty (20) non-pregnant pubertal women without any chronic disease were used as control. 5ml of venous blood was collected from all subjects and analyzed for OxLDL and hs-CRP using an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18. Results: Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein (OxLDL) showed mean variations across the groups but was not significant (P>0.05) but Pregnant women in their second trimester showed significant mean variation (P<0.05) (3716.11±599.86) in when compared to non-pregnant women (control) (4305.33±68.90) respectively. Pregnant women in the second trimester showed significantly decreased mean variation (P<0.05) in High sensitivity C-reactive protein (85.09 ±12.38) when compared to non-pregnant women (control) (219.45 ±64.61) respectively. Conclusions: This study shows that there are increases in levels of OxLDL and a decrease in plasma concentration of hs-CRP which are more significant in the second trimester.