Objective: This study was aimed to assess maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and determine the association between maternal 25(OH) D levels with risk of preeclampsia (PE).
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 172 pregnant women recruited from JPMC between January and December 2017 who were divided as normotensive (n=80) and pre eclamptic (n=92) groups. Blood pressure was recorded at 20 and 32 weeks of gestation. Five ml of blood sample was collected at 20 weeks of gestation to assess the vitamin D levels by commercially available ELISA assay.
Results: PE group had a significantly higher systolic (p<0.001) and diastolic (p<0.001) blood pressure at 20 weeks of gestation. Vitamin D levels were reported to be significantly lower (p<0.001) in the PE group (17.97±9.38 ng/ml) as compared to normotensive group (42.18±25.17 ng/ml). A strong negative correlation of Vitamin D levels with systolic blood pressure (r=-0.428; p<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r= 0.375; p<0.001) was found.
Conclusions: This study found a strong relationship between low vitamin D levels and pre-eclamptic manifestation.
Keywords: Vitamin D; Pre-eclampsia; Pregnancy; Hypertension.