Increased Homocysteine Level and Risk of Gestational Hypertension in South East Algerian population

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The objective of this study is to target the effect, in the South East Algerian population, of homocysteine level on gestational hypertension (GH) in wom-en. We also aim to study if gestational hypertension and preeclampsia (PE), two types of hypertensive disorders, share the same risk factors. The case-control study has been undertaken in Ouargla maternity hospital. Homocys-teine (Hcy) levels have been measured using an automated chemilumines-cence method. Creatinine and total protein have been determined using a colorimetric method, while an enzymatic technique has been employed to estimate the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the alanine aminotrans-ferase (ALT). The mean concentration of homocysteine was significantly higher for PE (14.90±8.54 μmol/l) and GH (11.10±5.13 μmol/l) compared to that of normotensive women (6.85±3.23 μmol/l) p≤ 0.01. Besides, hyperho-mocysteinemia (Hhcy) was detected with 70% of mothers with PE and with 40% of mothers with GH compared to only 11.53 % of controls. These values show the correlation between the rate of Hcy and hypertension during preg-nancy aetiology and severity. The other metabolites showed a significant increase in total protein level in PE and GH women compared to controls (p≤0.01). A significant increase in creatinine level is observed for patients with preeclampsia (p<0.05). There were no differences among patients and controls concerning AST nor ALT. Results show that homocysteine is an im-portant risk factor as for gestational hypertension as for preeclampsia. Com-plications have similar biochemical profiles leading GH to be given as much attention as PE.