Plasma from women with preeclampsia has a low lipid and ketone body content--a nuclear magnetic resonance study.

Objective: Using (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and chemometrics, we sought to establish the metabolic profile for preeclampsia and to identify biomarkers that would permit a distinction between women with a normal pregnancy and those suffering from preeclampsia.

Methods: Plasma samples from 11 normotensive pregnant women and 11 women with preeclampsia were analyzed. Principal component analysis was applied to differentiate between the two groups of patients.

Results: Lipid concentrations were found to be significantly lower in the plasma of patients suffering from preeclampsia than those in normotensive pregnant women (p = 0.031). There is also evidence to suggest that ketone body constituents may contribute to the discrimination.

Conclusion: (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolic profiling can detect patients with preeclampsia.