Correlation of High Sensitive C-reactive Protein levels with Mean Arterial Pressure and Serum Calcium in Women with Mild and Severe Pre-eclampsia

Background: Low grade systemic inflammation is considered as a risk factor for the progression of inflammation related disorders such as pre-eclampsia (PE). It is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria and edema during pregnancy. High sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a useful marker of inflammation that is able to predict the risk of PE. Urinary protein and trace elements like serum calcium may also play an important role in evaluating the severity of PE.

Aim: To compare the mean results of serum levels of hs-CRP and calcium in mild and severe pre-eclamptic women with healthy pregnant women and to investigate the relationship, if any between levels of serum hs-CRP with mean arterial pressure (MAP) and serum calcium.

Material and Methods: A case control study was performed on 50-50 primigravidas with mild and severe PE as cases as per clinical guidelines and 50 healthy pregnant women as controls. They were all age and parity matched primigravidas at the third trimester of pregnancy.

Results: By using ANOVA, statistically highly significant mean values of hs-CRP and serum calcium were observed among all groups (healthy pregnant women, mild pre-eclamptic and severe pre-eclamptic women). Significant positive correlation is found between hs-CRP with MAP, while the negative association is detected among hs-CRP and serum calcium.

Conclusion: Serum hs-CRP may be feasible to be used as a sensitive biomarker for determining women at risk of PE. There is a significant influence of calcium supplementation during the antenatal period and the occurrence of pregnancy induced hypertension.