Saira Ghafoor, Nazish Ali, Fehmida Salah, Syeda Fariha Hussain, Sumaira Zareen.
Assessment of association of Folate and Homocysteine levels with development of Pre-eclampsia among pregnant women.
Isra Med J Jan ;13(2):92-5.

Objective: To determine the association of folate and homocysteine with pre-eclampsia and to ascertain the consequences of preeclampsia on foetal birth weight. Study Design: A cross-sectional, case-control study. Place and Duration: From 3th May 2019 to 3rd October 2019 at the Gynecology Department of Jinnah Medical & Dental College in Karachi. Methodology: A total of 76 women with pre-eclampsia were randomly selected after establishing diagnostic criteria on blood pressure and proteinuria. Serum folate and Homocysteine levels were determined by collecting antecubital vein blood and running the assays. Based on the assay results, the study participants were divided into three groups: severe pre-eclampsia, mild pre-eclampsia, and normotensive women. Women were also evaluated for gestational age, maternal age, infant birth weight, and body mass index. Results: Homocysteine was found substantially higher in maternal serum in severe pre-eclampsia than in the mild pre-eclampsia population and controls (p=0.02). However, homocysteine levels were not important in differentiating the control groups from moderate pre-eclampsia (p>0.05). No significant variation was noted in folic acid (p>0.05). Additionally, pre-eclampsia was significantly correlated with gestational age and the child`s birth weight (p>0.05). Conclusion: The study`s findings indicated homocysteine is significantly associated with the development of pre-eclampsia and could act as a potential biomarker in its detection.

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