Relationship between Free Testosterone and Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is associated with reduction of utero-placental blood flow, which is reflected in high blood pressure and proteinuria during the second half of pregnancy. Hyper-androgenism may be implicated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, if so, there should be a difference between the levels of testosterone in pregnant women complicated with preeclampsia and those without this complication. This case control study was carried out in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from September 2016 to August 2017 to find out the relationship between free testosterone and preeclampsia. A total 110 pregnant women during third trimester of pregnancy were enrolled in this study. Among them 70 pregnant women with preeclampsia were considered as case and 40 healthy normotensive pregnant women were considered as control. 5.0ml of blood was collected from every patient to measure free serum testosterone level by the DRG free Testosterone ELISA kit. ANOVA, Chi square test, student t test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Spearman's rank test were used for statistical analyses. A "p" value <0.05 was considered as significant. High serum free testosterone was found in 74.3% preeclampsia patients and in 7.5% healthy pregnant patients. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05) having OR=35.63 with 95% CI. A significant positive correlation was found between systolic (r=0.289, p=0.009), and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.337, p=0.002) with free testosterone. Levels of the free testosterone were significantly higher in women with preeclampsia than in normotensive women, thus testosterone might have role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.