Effect of Gravidity on Biochemical Parameters in Normotensives and Hypertensive 2nd Trimester Pregnant Women

The study was aimed at evaluating the effect of gravidity on selected biochemical parameters of cardiovascular disease in normotensive and hypertensive 2^nd trimester pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at Rivers State University Teaching Hospital. The 100 consenting subjects who participated in the study were pregnant women in their second trimester. These subjects were randomly selected and divided into two main groups; normotensive pregnant women and hypertensive pregnant women groups. The groups were further divided based on gravidity; primigravida (number of pregnancy=1), multigravida (number of pregnancy>1) and grand multigravida (number of pregnancy≥5). Fasting blood sample was collected using venipuncture method and dispensed into plain bottles for TC, TG, HDL, LDL, ApoA1, ApoB, UA, VLDL and CRP determination. The result represented showed that gravidity had significant impact only on TG, HDL and VLDL among the subgroups, P-value<0.05. While in hypertensive subjects, gravidity had no effect on cardiovascular markers, uric acid level was significant, P-value<0.05. This study has shown that certain lipids are affected due to metabolic changes in 2^nd trimester of pregnancy especially in normotensive subjects and these changes increase with increase in gravidity.