Plasma level of atrial natriuretic peptide during normal pregnancy and preeclampsia

Abstract

objective: To assess plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) level in pregnant and
preeclamptic women, and to evaluate the role of this hormone in the defense mechanism
against body fluids and electrolytes disorders encountered under such physiological
and pathophysiological conditions.
Design: A case- series study.
Setting: Al - Batool Teaching Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics, Mosul, during the period from December 2003 to September 2004.
Participants: Twenty five women with normal pregnancy (group I ), 25 pregnant women with
preeclampsia (group ll ) and 25 healthy non pregnant women (control group) were included in this study.
Methods: Plasma ANP, serum creatinine, urea, sodium and potassium were measured in all
groups. unpaired -t-test was used to examine the difference in the mean of the studied
parameters between different groups. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relation
between different parameters within each group.
Results: The mean of plasma ANP level was significantly higher in group I (p<0.05) and group
ll (p<0.0001) than that in the control group. Furthermore, the plasma ANP level was
significantly higher in group ll (p<0,0001) than that in group l. The mean of serum creatinine
and serum urea were significantly higher in group ll than that in group l (p<0.005 and p<0.0001) and control group (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that plasma ANP level significantly increases
during pregnancy especially among those who develop preeclampsia. Since ANP plays an
important role in the maintenance of body fluids and electrolytes homeostasis and blood
pressure regulation, estimation of plasma ANP level may be of value in better understanding
and management of pathophysiological conditions that challenge the body homeostatic
mechanisms during pregnancy.
Key words: Atrial natriuretic peptide, preeclampsia.