Evaluation of Thyroid Hormones and Thyroid Antibodies in Nigerian Pregnant Women with Pre-eclampsia

ABSTRACT Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate thyroid function and thyroid antibodies in pregnant women with pre-eclampsia. Method: This was a case-control study and data were collected from a total of 140 women (aged 20 to 40 years) consisting of 60 pregnant women with pre-eclampsia (test) 40 age-matched normotensive pregnant women and forty (40) age-matched apparently healthy non-pregnant women with no history of hypertension (controls). Five milliliters (5ml) of blood was collected from each participant and their serum thyroid hormones, thyroid antibodies were measured by ELISA method. Kruskal Wallis test was used to check for any statistical difference among the study groups, Mann Whitney U test was carried out to check for any statistical difference between the study groups and data were presented as median. Level of significance was taken at P<0.05. Results: Thyroid hormones were significantly lower in pre-eclamptic women when compared with normotensive pregnant women, with the exception of T4 which was conversely higher (p<0.05). TG-Abs and TPO-Abs were significantly lower in pre-eclamptic pregnant women when compared with both normotensive pregnant women and non-pregnant women (p