Determination of serum elabela levels in patients with intrauterine growth retardation (İUGR)

ABSTRACT Our aim in this study; determination of serum Elabela levels in patients with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and investigation of its effect. Fifty pregnancies diagnosed as complicated by IUGR and fifty healthy control pregnancies enrolled into the study. Obstetric and demographic characteristics, serum Elabela levels, doppler parameters and other ultrasonographic parameters were recorded. Independent T test was used for comparison of continuous variables with normal distribution and Mann Whitney U test was used for comparison of continuous variables with normal distribution. p <0.05 was considered significant. The gestational age at delivery was 36.35 ± 1.29 in Group 1 and 38.16 ± 0.94 in Group 2. Fetal weight was 2498,20 ± 465,92 and 3179,44 ± 387,99 g for both groups, respectively, as found. Serum Elabela levels were found to be 15.05 ± 9.03 in Group 1 and 8.96 ± 4.33 ng/ml in Group 2. Diastolic arterial blood pressure was 77.00 ± 9.53 in Group 1 and 72.60 ± 13.37 mmHg in Group 2, as found. The values were statistically significant. The right uterine artery Pulsatility Index (PI), left uterine artery PI, middle cerebral artery (MCA) PI and cerebro-placental ratio (CPR) values were also statistically significant. Bilateral uterine artery PI values were higher in Group 1, while MCA PI and CPR values were higher in Group 2. Although the umbilical artery PI value was higher in Group 1, no statistically significant difference was found. Age, number of pregnancies, parity, number of curettage, systolic arterial blood pressure values, neonatal cord pH, 1st and 5th minute APGAR scores were similar and no statistically significant difference was found. In our study, it was found that serum Elabela levels increased significantly in pregnancies complicated by IUGR compared to the control group. Keywords: Pregnancy, intrauterine growth retardation, Elabela.