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

Abstract

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.