BACKGROUND:

Oxidative stress is an altered balance between antioxidant and oxidant systems, leading to cellular damage. In pregnant women with chronic hypertension, oxidative stress has been associated as an important phenomenon for the development of preeclampsia.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the usefulness of oxidized albumin and sulfhydryles as an oxidative stress marker in pregnant patients with and without chronic hypertension.

METHODS:

Cohort study, which included pregnant women from 28 to 30 weeks of gestation, with and without chronic hypertension. Demographic variables serum levels of albumin; oxidized albumin; oxidized albumin/serum albumin index and sulfhydryl were measured by direct spectrophotometry. The final outcome was preeclampsia, diagnosed according to 2013 ACOG Task force. Mean and standard deviation were determined for numerical variables and proportions for qualitative variables. Contingency tables and association measures were performed using χ2 for qualitative variables and Mann-Whitney U test for quantitative variables. p <0.005 was considered significant.

RESULTS:

A total of 24 pregnant women were included, 10 with chronic hypertension and 14 controls. In the chronic hypertension group 3/10 patients developed preeclampsia. No significant differences were found between serum levels of oxidized albumin, oxidized albumin-serum albumin index, and total sulfhydryl levels in the chronic hypertension group in relation to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this study, no significant differences were found in oxidative stress molecules serum levels in women with and without chronic hypertension. This may be due to the small number of cases, which requires studies with larger population to rule out this hypothesis.