Increased endothelin in infants of pre-eclamptic mothers.

Objective: Endothelin (ET), a vasoactive mediator, like others which originate from the endothelium or circulating cells, may participate in myocardial injury. In full-term neonates of mild pre-eclamptic mothers (NMPM), it identifies minor myocardial damage missed by other biochemical markers. The present study was designed to determine the diagnostic value of ET concentrations in NMPM.

Methods: Seventeen NMPM were studied (10 boys and seven girls), and 17 healthy full-term (nine boys and eight girls) were selected for a control group. Birthweights in NMPM and control group were 2950 g (2.300-3.850) and 3.350 g (2.650-4.000), respectively. The ET measured by the radioimmunoassay method, Troponin T (TnT) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method and creatine kinase (CK-MB) determined in chemical 1 analysis.

Results: Serum ET and TnT concentrations in NMPM (3.32 pg/mL vs 0.74 ng/mL) were significantly higher than the control group (0.82 pg/mL vs 0.10 ng/mL) (P < 0.01 and < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated high levels of ET, cardiac TnT in NMPM, presumably associated with myocardial damage in NMPM.