Adipokine Serum visfatin level in pregnancy induced hypertension and uncomplicated pregnancy

Background and Objectives: Hypertensive disorder in pregnancy is the significant disease that badly affects the maternal and fetal prognosis and lead to higher mortality and morbidity in the prenatal period. Visfatin, potentially a new adipokine has emerged having high contribution in pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. The objective of the study was to find the level of Visfatin in pregnancy induced hypertension and normal pregnant women.

Methods: This study was carried out in tertiary care hospitals, Peshawar from March-October 2014. A total of 234 pregnant women (gestational age >20 weeks) were included in the study with distribution as Preeclampsia (PE=86), Eclampsia (E=74) and control (N=74). Blood was taken for measuring Visfatin level by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. SPSS version 19 was used for statistical analysis. Student’s t test was performed to evaluate the mean differences in patients and control.

Results: Serum level of visfatin was significantly higher in pregnancy induced hypertension when compared with control (P value <0.001). Comparisons of mean value of visfatin with age group of 21-40 years, body mass index (BMI), primary parous and parity 2-4, gestational age of >36 weeks and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were highly significant in pregnancy induced hypertension when compared with control (p value <0.001).

Conclusion: Pregnancy induced hypertensive women showed increased level of serum Visfatin than normal pregnant women.