Homocysteine and Serum Cholesterol in pregnant Nigerian Women

Hyperhomocysteinaemia and hypercholesterolaemia are implicated in pregnancy and various disease states and conditions including cardiovascular diseases. Their individual effects are known but the use of both in monitoring pregnancy. The aim of this study is thus the determination of serum Homocysteine and cholesterol levels in pregnant Nigerian Women. Healthy fasting adult females had venepuncture while supine and without tourniquet. Homocysteine (tHcy), assay was done using ELISA assay with tHcy binding protein as the capturing enzyme. Excluded from the study were subjects with impaired renal function, liver function and diabetics. Subjects were 60(30 pregnant, 30 non pregnant). Their average age was 26.2 ± 1.7 (CI 0.05 25.6 – 26.8 95%) years for non pregnant controls and 30.7± 2.5 (CI 0.05 29.8 - 31.6 95%) years for those pregnant. In the non pregnant group the Mean serum tHcy was 8.0 ± 4.0µmol/L (CI 0.05 6.6 – 9.4 95%). Three females had values >15µmol/L. In the pregnant group, Mean tHcy was 4.7 ± 0.9 µmol/L (CI 0.05 3.8 – 5.6 95%). Categorization of tHcy is as follows: <5µmol/L = 8/52(15%), 5-15µmol/L = 41/52(78.8%), >16µmol/L= 3/52(5.7%).The mean tChol in the pregnant group was 3.26 ± 1.0mmol/L (CI 0.05 2.89 – 3.63) while that for the pregnant group was 4.82 ± 1.0 mmol/L (CI 0.05 4.45 – 5.19) Measuring tHcy and tChol in pregnancy is promising as a good index for monitoring pregnancy. There is a relationship between tHcy and tChol but this needs further investigation. Keywords: Homocysteine, Cholesterol, Serum, Pregnancy, Nigeria