TITLE:
Trends in Triglyceride (Fat) Levels of Various Stages of Pregnancy in Nigerian Women
AUTHORS:
Affi Ayuba, Josiah Mutihir, Dalili Shabbal, A. S. Longwan, T. S. Selowo, A. Lukden, Stephen Pam, Mercy Solomon
KEYWORDS:
Gestational Age, Maternal Age, Parity, Gravidity, Trimester
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.8 No.12,
October
29,
2018
ABSTRACT: Background: In developing countries like Nigeria, with poor
socio-economic, early marriage, poor acceptance of contraception, poor spacing
of pregnancies, high fertility rate and poor maternal and child health indices,
leading to poor maternal-child outcome. There is a need to
investigate the pattern of serum lipid changes during pregnancy in Nigeria
women as hyperlipidemia may lead to poor maternal outcome. Materials and
methods: A total
of one hundred and forty (140) subjects between the ages of 20 and 45 years
with mean age 29.74 ± 6.5 years of the study population. Group 1: the
control comprises of thirty-five (35) healthy non pregnant subjects with mean
age of 26.84 ± 5.2 volunteers of Nigeria origin. Group 2: the
test involved one hundred and five (105) apparently healthy pregnant Nigerian
women sub-divided into three groups; X, Y and Z each made of thirty-five (35) subjects distributed into 1st,
2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy respectively. The TG
assay was analyzed using enzymatic spectrophotometric method as described by
Biosystems. Results: The result analysis showed a significant increase (p ≤ 0.05)
in the TG level during the first trimester of pregnancy when compared with
control as shown in Table 1. There was a significant increase (p ≤ 0.05)
in the TG levels during the second trimester of pregnancy when compared with
that of the control subjects. During
the third trimester of pregnancy there was a significant increase in TG levels
when compared with the control subjects. Conclusion: This work revealed that the most dramatic change in
the lipid profile in normal pregnancy is serum hypertriglyceridemia, which may
be as high as two-three folds in the third trimester over the levels in non
pregnant subjects. The estimation of lipid profile is strongly recommended as
part of the laboratory investigations during pregnancy. Since studies in recent
past have incriminated abnormal lipid metabolism during pregnancy in the
pathogenesis of atherosclerotic, ischemia heart disease, intrauterine growth
disease, intrauterine growth retardation and hypertension.