3. A comparison between serum inhibin A levels in pre-eclampsia and normotensive pregnancy

Aim: To evaluate the validity of serum inhibin A levels in assessing the severity of preeclampsia. Methods: Hospital based, prospective study conducted in Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. Inclusion criteria: The patients in the study will be divided into cases and controls based on the criteria proposed. 5mL of venous blood was collected from each patient in an aseptic plain and EDTA vacutainer. Serum inhibin A levels estimated by the ELISA method. Statistical analysis: The samples were statistically analysed by [chi-square] χ2, student’s t-test. Mann-Whitney U-test was used for the comparison of multiples of median. All tests were two‐sided.Statistical significance was inferred for P values <0.05. Results: 72 patients were studied. 36 women were preclampsia cases and 36 were controls, were also divided in to subgroups mild and severe preeclampsia. The median value of inhibin A level in normotensive controls was 901.4pg/mL while in mild pre-eclampsia patients was 1125pg/mL (p>0.05), which was statistically not significant while median serum inhibin A level in severe pre-eclampsia was 1472.5pg/mL (p <0.05), which was statistically significant. Conclusion: There is increase in the serum inhibinA levels in pre-eclampsia group when compared to that in normotensive women. The severe pre-eclamptic sub group patients had statistically significant rise of MOM [p<0.05] compared to that of normotensive controls, there is considerable overlapping of serum inhibin A values among cases and controls. Further studies are needed to prove whether serum inhibinA levels can be used for prediction of pre-eclampsia in India.