ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Leptin is a polypeptide hormone that may be implicated in the pathogenesis of various disorders during pregnancy. We sought to determine serum leptin levels among pregnant women and their fetuses and to investigate their association with fetal and maternal variables. METHOD: 452 pregnant women who attended to labor ward between January 2020 and August 2020 were included in the study. Serum leptin concentrations were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's correlation test were used for statistical analysis. A multivariate linear regression analysis was then performed. Significance level was considered at alpha <0.05. RESULTS: The median maternal and fetal serum leptin levels were 6.42 [4.16-8.51] ng/mL and 2.9 [1.03-5.36] ng/mL respectively. There was no significant correlation between maternal and fetal serum leptin levels (p = 0.064). Maternal serum leptin levels correlated positively with maternal body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.117, p = 0.005). Besides, maternal serum leptin levels were significantly higher in nulliparous women (7.57 [4.45-9.30] ng/mL vs. 6.22 [4.02-8.30] ng/mL, p = 0.037) and in women who were in active labor (6.83 [4.39-8.92] ng/mL vs. 6.25 [4.04-8.30] ng/mL, p = 0.047). Fetal serum leptin levels were significantly higher in large for gestational age (LGA) fetuses (4.81 [2.13-7.22] ng/mL vs. 2.80 [0.96-5.16] ng/mL, p = 0.003) and in fetuses with preterm premature ruptures of membranes (PPROM) (5.23 [2.42-8.07] ng/mL vs. 2.86 [1.00-5.23] ng/mL, p = 0.021). CONCLUSION: Maternal serum leptin levels were influenced by maternal BMI, parity and labor. Fetal serum leptin levels were higher among LGA fetuses and in fetuses with PPROM.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical, pathological and surgical features of primary epithelial ovarian cancer treated at our institution. METHODS: fifty-nine patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer were included. Clinical data collected included patient's age, presenting symptoms, laboratory and tumor markers results as well as preoperative imaging reports. Pathological and surgical findings included were: spread of the disease, histologic type, stage of the disease, type of surgical procedure and amount of residual disease. RESULTS: Mean age of the patients was 54.5 years. Lower abdominal pain was the most common presenting symptom, followed by abdominal distension. The commonest histopathological type was high grade serous carcinoma (72.9%). In our study, majority of patients were diagnosed with stage III disease, accounting for 69.5% of the total number of patients. Complete cytoreduction with no gross residual disease was achieved in 77.3% of patients with stage 3-4 disease. CONCLUSION: clinical and pathological features of primary epithelial ovarian carcinoma in our populations are similar to what is reported worldwide. We have also documented that our surgical approach to the management of ovarian cancer is comparable to the international consensus.