Relationship of levels of the umbilical vein ischemia modified albumin between intrauterine growth restriction

ischemia in acute coronary syndrome. Initially, it was mentioned as a molecule that can be analysed easily and fast in the early diagnosis of the patients with ischemic coronary damage. When ischemia of tissue occurs, circulating albumin is exposed to structural changes. As a result of this change, cobalt binding characteristic of albumin decreases and they can not bind each other. In this study, we aimed to determine whether we can use IMA, which is used in the diagnosis of coronary diseases as a routine test recently, in the diagnosis of placental ischemia, hypoxia and oxidative stres which occur in intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR). We hypothesized that IMA levels will arise in the umbilical vein blood of the neonates with IUGR. Forty control cases, aging between 30-41 gestational weeks, who have normal fetal development and 40 patients, aging between 27-41 gestational weeks, who were diagnosed as IUGR following necessary medical tests were included into the study. All the cases were applied to the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, between 2010 February and November 2010. Blood samples were obtained adequately from the umbilical cord to detect IMA levels and pH from all the cases and samples were tested. Results of the two groups were compared statistically. IMA levels in the IUGR group were determined statistically significantly higher (p=0.011) when IMA levels in the umbilical ven were compared between IUGR group and control group. No significant difference was determined in the point of pH values of umbilical ven between those two groups (p=0.342). With these results we can suggest that IMA, which is proved to arise in ischemic conditions, shows placental hypoxia and oxidative stress that occurs in IUGR. Thus, pregnant women accompanying any risk of antepartum IUGR can be enhanced in the point of diagnosis by measuring IMA levels in the umbilical ven by cordosynthesis. We suppose that this finding is useful at least theoretically, even though cordosynthesis can not be preferred during clinical practice due to its probable risks. Limitation of this study is that the number of the cases is not so much and we can not generalize the results. We hope that this limitation will be discarded by further studies with large number of series based on this study.