Serum Visfatin in Preeclampsia and Normal Pregnancy in Lagos, South-Western Nigeria

Background: Adipocytokines have been recently implicated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. Visfatin is one of such adipokines.

Objective: To determine the association between serum visfatin levels and preeclampsia.

Methods: A prospective, case-control study was carried out in 160 pregnant women consisting of 80 pre-eclamptics and 80 normotensive controls, matched for age and parity during the third trimester. Maternal serum visfatin levels were determined in both groups using a visfatin (Human) enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay. Serum Visfatin levels were compared between the groups and correlated to the blood pressure, proteinuria, fetal birth weight and Apgar scores.

Results: The mean serum visfatin level was significantly higher (10.3±6.9 ng/ml) in preeclampsia than (7.4±4.4 ng/ml) in the control group (p=0.001). The mean serum visfatin level was higher in severe pre-eclamptics (10.8±8.9 ng/ml) compared to (9.6±5.8ng/ml) in mild preeclamptics and this was statistically significant (p=0.021). Visfatin levels showed a negative and non-significant correlation with both systolic (r= -0.011 and p=0.924), diastolic blood pressure (r= -0.012, p=0.913) and body mass index (r= -0.142, p=0.209) in both study and control groups. Mean birth weight was significantly lower in the preeclampsia (2.8±0.25 kg) compared to the control group (3.2±0.31 kg) P=0.000. the mean birth weight was lower in severe preeclampsia (2.7±0.25 kg compared to 2.9±0.39 in mild preeclamsia. There was no significant correlation between the visfatin levels and Apgar score at 5minutes and birth weights in both groups (P=>0.05).

Conclusion: This study showed a significant increase in the level of visfatin in preeclampsia compared to their normo-tensive controls. However, this increased level was not consistent with the severity of the disease.