Title of article :
The relationship between serum zinc level and preeclampsia
Author/Authors :
Bahadoran, Parvin Department of Midwifery - School of Nursing and Midwifery - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran , Zendehdel, Manoush , Movahedian, Ahmad Department of Biochemistry - School of Pharmacology - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran , Hasan Zahraee, Roshanak Department of Midwifery - School of Nursing and Midwifery - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract :
BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is one of the commonest causes of prenatal and maternity related death in the world. Preeclampsia
is caused by multiple factors and finding any factor related to this disorder can help on time prevention of this disease,
which reduces the mortality of mothers and infants. Zinc deficiency is a possible risk factor for risky pregnancies and
the results of studies on this subject are controversial. This study investigated the relationship between mothers' serum zinc
and risky pregnancies.
METHODS: This was a case-control study on 48 normal pregnancies as controls and 48 preeclamptic pregnancies as case
group. The women were studied in their third month of pregnancy. Simple random sampling was done based on inclusion
and exclusion criteria. The two groups were matched in mothers' age, pregnancy age, number of childbirth, and socioeconomic
status. Data were collected by blood sampling and a questionnaire. Serum zinc level was assessed by atomic
absorption spectrometry method. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software.
RESULTS: The level of serum zinc in most women in both groups was under 50 mg/dl (62.5% in normal pregnancy group
and 79.2% in preeclamptic group). There was no significant difference between the mean (SD) serum zinc concentration of
the two groups (47.83 (12.72) for normal pregnancy and 43.66 (11.98) for preeclampsia). There was an association between
serum zinc concentration and the severity of preeclampsia (p = 0.04, r = -0.12). We did not find any significant relation
between serum zinc level and the following variables: mothers' age (p = 0.15, r = -0.11), pregnancy age (p = 0.07,
r = -0.24), and parity (p = 0.02, r = -0.39).
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study showed that the assessment of serum zinc level does not have any clinical values
for managing preeclampsia. However, based on the relationship between serum zinc concentration and the severity of
preeclampsia in this study, we recommend assessment of serum zinc concentration as an index for predicting the severity
of preeclampsia.
Keywords :
Serum zinc , risky pregnancy , preeclampsia , pregnancy outcomes , zinc supplement
Journal title :
Astroparticle Physics