Booking blood pressures and plasma nitrite in Jamaican women with pre-eclampsia

N Levy1, G Bramwell, A Wierenga

  • 1Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica.

Our objective was to assess the levels of nitric oxide (NO) in pre-eclampsia and to investigate its effect on blood pressure (BP) in the Jamaican population. A total of 103 participants (50 pre-eclampsia, 53 controls) were recruited from the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). Blood samples were collected in the fasting state and trimester BP measurements were obtained from their records. A commercially available kit supplied by Oxford Biomedical Research Inc. (MI, USA) was used to measure plasma levels of NO. All measures of booking BP were significantly higher in women who later developed pre-eclampsia compared with those whose pregnancies remained normotensive (p 0.05. We concluded that in the Jamaican population, booking BP measurements may be predictors of pre-eclampsia and NO production increases in pre-eclampsia but is not related to the height of the BP.

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