Plasma total antioxidant capacity and its related factors in Iranian pregnant women.

Objective: To determine the plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and its related factors in pregnant Iranian women attending maternity clinics.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study carried out in Naghavi Maternity Clinic, Shaheed Beheshti Specialty and Subspecialty Polyclinic and 10 antenatal centers, affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran, we determined the plasma TAC and its related factors including maternal age, weight, and body mass index (BMI) at the beginning, thirteenth, and twenty-first to twenty-fourth weeks of pregnancy, and gestational age at the twenty-first to twenty-fourth weeks of pregnancy in 137 primigravid pregnant women, 18-30 years old from October 2010 to March 2011. We used multiple linear regression to assess the relationship between TAC and its related factors.

Results: Plasma TAC in the twenty-first to twenty-fourth weeks of pregnancy was 0.75+/-0.11 mmol/l. The BMI at the beginning was 25.06+/-4, 25.72+/-4.13 at the thirteenth, and 26.95+/-4.19 kg/m2 at the twenty-first to twenty-fourth weeks of pregnancy. Multiple regression analysis showed that gestational age was inversely associated with the plasma TAC (beta: -0.234, p=0.007). Regression analysis also suggested a trend toward significant association between maternal age and plasma TAC (beta: 0.150, p=0.080), but there was no association between other variables and plasma TAC.

Conclusion: Gestational age was inversely correlated with plasma TAC and maternal age had a trend toward significant association with TAC in 18-30 year-old Iranian pregnant women in their sixth month of pregnancy.