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Abstract Objectives: This study was aimed to assess maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and  determine the association between maternal 25(OH) D levels with risk of preeclampsia (PE). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 172 pregnant women recruited from JPMC between January and December 2017 who were divided as normotensive (n=80) and pre-eclamptic (n=92) groups. Blood pressure was recorded at 20 and 32 weeks of gestation. Five ml of blood sample was collected at 20 weeks of gestation to assess the vitamin D levels by commercially available ELISA assay. Results:  PE group had a significantly higher systolic (p<0.001) and diastolic (p<0.001) blood pressure at 20 weeks of gestation. Vitamin D levels were reported to be significantly lower (p<0.001) in the PE group (17.97±9.38 ng/ml) as compared to normotensive group (42.18±25.17 ng/ml). A strong negative correlation of Vitamin D levels with systolic blood pressure (r=-0.428; p<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r= -0.375; p<0.001) was found. Conclusion: This study found a strong relationship between low vitamin D levels and pre-eclamptic manifestation. Keywords: Vitamin D; Pre-eclampsia; Pregnancy; Hypertension. Continuous....

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BACKGROUND Women with gestational diabetes mellitus have an increased risk of developing gestational hypertension, which can increase fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. In the past decade, single nucleotide polymorphisms in several genes have been identified as risk factors for development of gestational hypertension. The epidermal growth factor receptor activates tyrosine kinase mediated blood vessels contractility; and inflammatory cascades. Abnormalities in these mechanism are known to contribute towards hypertension. It is thus plausible that polymorphisms in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene would be associated with the development of hypertension in women with gestational diabetes. AIM To determine whether the epidermal growth factor receptor rs17337023 SNP is associated with the occurrence of hypertension in gestational diabetic women. METHODS This pilot case-control study was conducted at two tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, from January 2017-August 2018. Two hundred and two women at 28 week of gestation with gestational diabetes were recruited and classified into normotensive ( n = 80) and hypertensive ( n = 122) groups. Their blood samples were genotyped for epidermal growth factor receptor polymorphism rs17337023 using tetra-ARMS polymerase chain reaction. Descriptive analysis was applied on baseline data. Polymorphism data was analyzed for genotype and allele frequency determination using chi-squared statistics. In all cases, a P value of < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS Subjects were age-matched and thus no difference was observed in relation to age of the study subjects ( P >0.05). Body fat percentage was significantly higher in hypertensive females as compared to normotensive subjects (35.138 ± 4.29 Case vs 25.01 ± 8.28 Control; P < 0.05). Similarly, systolic and diastolic blood pressures among groups were significantly higher in hypertensive group than the normotensive group ( P < 0.05). Overall epidermal growth factor receptor rs17337023 polymorphism genotype frequency was similar in both groups, with the heterozygous AT genotype (56 in Case vs 48 in Control; P = 0. 079) showing predominance in both groups. Furthermore, the odds ratio for A allele was 1.282 ( P = 0.219) and for T allele was 0.780 ( P = 0.221) in this study. CONCLUSION This pilot study indicates that polymorphisms in rs17337023 may not be involved in the pathophysiology of gestational hypertension in gestational diabetes via inflammatory cascade mechanism. Further large-scale studies should explore polymorphism in epidermal growth factor receptor and ot...

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is characterized by high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels (4.5 to 10 IU/L) and normal T3 and T4 hormones. It may occur with or without mild symptoms of hypothyroidism and autoimmunity. In pregnancy one of the common complications is SCH. Multiple adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes such as cognitive and neuropsychiatric effects are associated with SCH. Globally, 3-15% of the general population is affected by SCH. In Pakistan, the prevalence of SCH is ~ 8.1% in women during gestation. This study was conducted to see the effects of maternal SCH during pregnancy on young rats in terms of behavioural and gross brain structure changes and their reversibility after treatment with levothyroxine. Method: 14 Female Sprague Dawley rats (200–300g) were acclimatized and allowed to get impregnated. They were divided into 3 groups. 1. Treated (n=4): was induced with SCH by propylthiouracil (PTU) 5µg/kg/day at PD6 and treated with levothyroxine from gestational day 16 to postnatal day 40. 2. Untreated (n=5): was induced with SCH and left untreated. 3. Control (n=5) was administered with equal volumes of saline. Body weight of pups was recorded regularly. Histological procedures were performed at postnatal day 7, 14 and 21 to identify any neonatal neurological problems. Behavioural tests such as elevated plus maze, forced swim and tail suspension tests were performed to test anxiety and depression. Result: On postnatal day 7, pups from the untreated mothers showed a substantial decline in body weight compared to treated and control groups. These differences were more profound with age at P14 and P21. No major changes were seen in the gross brain structure of untreated rats as compared to treated rats. The most depressed behaviour was found in pups from untreated dams evident from significantly increased immobility time in FST and TST as compared to healthy ones. Conclusion: Despite the absence of any gross changes in the brain structure, minor but significant behavioural difference, indicative of depression, was observed in the pups of untreated rats.