Objective: To assess serum Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) levels in women with pre-ecclampsia and correlate them with other parameters of pre-eclampsia.
Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad from February 2019 to February 2020. Included were 85 pregnant women with 32-34 weeks of gestation. They were divided in 2 groups: pre-eclamptic cases 40/85, and normotensive controls (45/85). PE was defined based on NICE 2018 guidelines. Patients' age and blood pressure (BP) were recorded. We evaluated mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), serum levels of uric acid, and AAT blood samples.
Results: AAT levels were significantly lower among preeclamptic cases (0.26) mg/dl versus controls (0.63) mg/dl. Negative correlations were found between levels of AAT and other variables (systolic BP, diastolic BP, MPV, PDW, and serum uric acid levels) with a coefficient of correlation ( r) -0.43,-0.43,-0.25,-0.25, and- 0.26 respectively. P-value <0.05 was estimated for all.
Conclusion: Significant lower levels of AAT in pre-eclamptic patients versus controls suggest that it contributes to pre-eclampsia development. The second finding was negative correlations of reduced AAT with the most common maternal parameters assessing pre-eclampsia severity. Taken together, these results indicate that AAT is intimately linked to the pathophysiology of PE development and progression. Further work is warranted to verify the AAT role in pre-eclampsia.
Keywords: Alpha-1 antitrypsin, Pre-eclampsia, Maternal platelets, Serum uric acid..