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 visfatinlevels and preeclampsia.Methods:A prospective, case-control study was carried out in 160 pregnant womenconsisting of80 pre-eclamptics and 80 normotensive controls, matched for age and parity during the third trimester. Maternal serum visfatinlevels 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±6.9ng/ml)in preeclampsia than (7.4±4.4ng/ml) in the control group (p=0.001). The mean serumvisfatin level was higher in severe pre-eclamptics (10.8±8.9ng/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±0.25kg) compared to the control group (3.2±0.31kg) P=0.000. The mean birthweight was lower in severe preeclampsia (2.7±0.25kg 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 preeclampsiacompared to their normo-tensive controls. However, this increased level was not consistent with the severity of the disease.