Evaluation of maternal serum lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters in the prediction of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women attending ANC and delivery services

Abstract Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy related metabolic syndrome which adversely influence the mother and their newborn infants. Besides, lack of study in our population, some studies also reporting discrepancies in the association of lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters with the risk of PE. Hence, this study was designed to evaluate the diagnostic potential of serum lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters with PE. Institution-based case-control study was performed at Bahir Dar city governmental hospitals. The study participants were selected through simple random sampling and the socio-demographic data were collected by interview-administered questionnaire. Five ml of venous blood were collected to evaluate lipid profile and clinical chemistry parameters. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared test, multivariable logistic regression and Mann-Whitney U test were utilized for analysis of variables. ROC and combined ROC curve analysis were executed to check the diagnostic accuracy at 95% CI. A total of 336 study participants (168 cases and 168 controls) were included. The median concentrations of serum triglyceride (229 (180-293.75) vs 194 (158.5–255)), total cholesterol (196 (167.25–224) vs 185.5 (158.5-212.75)), ALT (23(20–32) vs 21 (20–25)) and AST (35 (23.25-45) vs 24 (20–35)) values were significantly increased in cases as compared with normal controls. However, the median concentrations of serum total protein (6.7(6.1–7.4) vs 7.1 (6.7–7.6)) and serum calcium (7.6 (7.1–7.9) vs 7.9(7.5–8.3)) were significantly decreased in cases than controls. Positive correlations were observed between blood pressure and serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, ALT & AST values while negative correlations were shown between blood pressure and HDL-cholesterol, total protein and serum calcium values. The combined ROC curve analysis of serum lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters showed a moderate prediction potential of PE. Hence, serum lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters were utilized as the diagnostic biomarkers of PE. However, to generate tangible evidence on the roles of lipid profiles and clinical chemistry parameters in PE pathogenesis and to include them as routine diagnostic biomarker multi-center prospective studies will be warranted.