Prorenin and secreted frizzled-related protein 4 levels in women with gestational diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate prorenin and secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) levels in pregnancies with or without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). METHODS: A total of 76 pregnant women were included in the study. Thirty-five of the pregnant women were included in GDM group according to the results of oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) and 41 of them were included in the control group. RESULTS: In the group with GDM, SFRP4 value was found to be significantly higher than that of the control group (5.59 ± 3.32 ng/mL vs 4.05 ± 2.15 ng/mL; p = 0.017). Women with GDM had significantly higher serum prorenin levels compared with control group [737 (427-1339) pg/mL vs. 535 (376-725) pg/mL; p = 0.009]. There was a significant positive association between prorenin and SFRP4 levels in GDM (r = 0.91; p < 0.001) and control groups (r = 0.42; p = 0.002) and whole pregnancies (r = 0.75; p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: We have shown that prorenin and SFRP4 were significantly elevated in GDM patients when compared to healthy control group. Furthermore, we found that there was a positive correlation between prorenin and SFRP4 (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 38).

Assessment of body composition with bioelectrical impedance analysis in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum before and after treatment.

More than half of pregnant women suffer from nausea and vomiting, in 0.5-1% of the pregnant women, if nausea and vomiting are severe and persistent, condition can progress to hyperemesis. We evaluated the fluid volume parameters in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum, before and after treatment using the bioelectrical impedance vectors. A total of 70 pregnant women who had weight loss exceeding 5% of pre-pregnancy body weight were recruited for the study in the first trimester. The measurement of multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis parameters was performed on the day of hospitalisation before any treatment and after treatment at 24 h and 72 h with the same procedure. Total body water, extracellular water, intracellular water, and fat-free mass index increased after treatment at 24 h (P < 0.01). Also, the mean pregnancy-unique quantification of emesis and nausea score was significantly lower after treatment (11.3 ± 2.1 at enrolment, 5.1 ± 1.4 at 24 h and 4.3 ± 1.1 at 72 h) (P < 0.01), which correlated with the patients' clinical improvement and changes in hydration. In pregnant women with moderate-to-severe hyperemesis gravidarum, significant body composition changes occur and fluid replacement therapy performed during a short period of time, such as 24 h, provides improvement in body composition.