Background: Pre-eclampsia is a hypertensive disorder in pregnancy, that has adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. Abnormal serum lipid levels have been implicated in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia, this can give rise to increased oxidative stress and then subsequently, endothelial dysfunction. Methods: This study was a comparative crosssectional study that involved fifty pregnant women that had pre-eclampsia and another fifty healthy pregnant women. Cases and controls were matched for Age in years, Parity, Gestational age in weeks and Body mass index in Kg/M 2. Fasting venous blood samples were obtained and analyzed for serum levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins (LDL), and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) using enzymatic colorimetric method aided by Cobass C111 Autoanalyser machine. The Data was analyzed using Epi-info version 3.5.4, CDC, Atlanta, USA and P <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Mean age of the case and control groups were 28.86 + 4.50 Years and 29.9 + 4.95 Years respectively (P = 0.59). Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in terms of total Cholesterol (P = 0.98) and low density lipoprotein (P = 0.92). However, mean triglycerides (1.95 + 0.89 mmol/L versus 1.02 + 0.51 mmoI/L) was significantly higher in women with pre-eclampsia compared to the control (P= 0.0004) and a significant reduction in high density lipoprotein (0.79± 0.30 mmol/L versus 1.74 + 0.45 mmol/L) in the case group (P = 0.0005). Conclusion: In this study, Pre-eclampsia is associated with elevated serum triglycerides and reduced high density lipoprotein. These findings may serve as screening markers for preeclampsia.

Abstract:Background: Maternal obesity is associated with adverse obstetric outcomes including labour complications.This study aimed at assessing the relationship between maternal obesity and course of first stage of labour and risk of caesarean delivery among women in active first stage of labour. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was a secondary analysis of data collected to assess the impacts of maternal obesity on pregnancy outcomes in a Nigerian obstetric population. We compared progress of labour and risk of caesarean delivery in 170 obese [Body mass index (BMI = ≥ 30 Kg/m2 )] and 170 normal weight women (BMI = 18.5 -24.9 Kg/m 2 ) who were in spontaneous labour at term. They were matched for age and parity and exclusion criteria included women with height less than 1.52 metres, medical disorders, previous caesarean section, those that had augmentation of labour and infant weight > 4.0 Kg. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Mean age and parity of the women were 30.6 ± 4.8 years and 1.9 ± 1.6 respectively. There was no significant difference between mean cervical dilatation at presentation between the two study groups (4.9 ± 1.8 versus 5.0 ± 1.7, P = 0.64). Cervical dilatation rate per hour was significantly slower in obese group compared to the controls (0.87 ± 0.4 versus 1.2 ± 0.5 cm/hr, P = 0.001). The mean duration of labour was the same in both groups (7.5 ± 3.9 versus 6.2 ± 3.4 hours, P = 0.57). Caesarean section rate increased from 8.8% in the controls to 23.5% among obese women. Obese women had three times higher risk of caesarean delivery compared to the controls (P = 0.002, OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.15 -8.62) and this was mainly due to failure to progress in labour (P = 0.03). Conclusion: Among women in active phase of labour, maternal obesity was associated with slower rate of cervical dilatation and increased risk of caesarean delivery.

Combined oral contraceptive pills (COCP) use, is link to the development of precancerous cervical lesions. There are variations in reports across studied populations. Our study was a comparative, cross-sectional study. SPSS version 20 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for data analysis and P-Value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The Prevalence of precancerous cervical lesions in the Exposed and Control groups were 16.4% (9/55) and 14.5% (8/55) respectively (P = of 0.79). In the exposed group, four out of the nine women that had abnormal cervical cytology results had high grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HGSIL) while only one out of 8 women that had abnormal cytology results in the control group had HGSIL. We found no significant difference in the prevalence of pre-cancerous cervical lesions between users and non-users of COCP. However, women who used COCP had higher cases of HGSIL when compared with the control group. Therefore, we suggest relatively short schedule of cervical cytology screening for this group of women relative to the general population.