Maternal Serum Human Chorionic Gonadotropin And Magnesium As Biochemical Markers In Predicting Preeclampsia In Pregnant Ghanaian Women.

Preeclampsia is a multisystem disease of pregnancy of unknown cause. It is a maternal syndrome, which is characterized by increased blood pressure, edema, proteinuria or significant amount of protein in the urine of pregnant women and abnormal clotting, liver and renal functions all of which may be due to the release of placental toxic factors into the mother’s circulation. The only effective therapy to this complication is to facilitate the culteinment of the pregnancy or delivery (induction of labour, cesarean section). Biochemical markers such as human chorionic gonadotropin(hCG) and magnesium(Mg 2+ ) are used in predicting preeclampsia. No work has been done using both markers together and there is no maternal screening program for preeclampsia available for pregnant women in Ghana. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of maternal serum hCG and Mg2+ among cases and controls of pregnant Ghanaian women, with the view of assessing the differential if any in these markers, for high risk preeclamptic pregnancies. In this prospective study, 200 women aged between 16 and 40 years with singleton pregnancy were enrolled. Venous blood sample was collected at recruitment (second trimester) for Mg 2+ and hCG assays. Levels of hCG were detected by ELISA methods, using commercial test kits and that of the Mg 2+ were detected by the use of Selectral Junior analyzer also using commercial test kits. The study population was made up of 150 pregnant women in second trimester with features of preeclampsia and 50 controls (second trimester pregnant women with no features of preeclampsia). Out of the total women with features of preeclampsia, 13 pregnant women were diagnosed as preeclamptic patients with urine protein assigned+3.The mean age of the WFP was (29.65 ± 5.24) and that of the controls was (27.76 + 5.22). The serum markers, Mg 2+ was significantly lowered (0.68 ± 0.11) whiles hCG significantly raised (0.99 ± 0.20) in the WFP. The study showed that hCG and Mg 2+when used together provide a very good prediction of preeclampsia. Though Mg 2+ is a better predictor of preeclampsia when used separately as compared to hCG