Abstract
Aim: Cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) is suggested to correlate with preeclampsia. This study aimed to determine the association between CA-125 and preeclampsia in Sudan.
Materials and Methods: The study included 40 normotensive women (Control group), and 40 women with preeclampsia, further subdivided into a mild group (n = 23), and severe group (n = 17). Venous blood was taken from all the participants, and determination of CA-125 level was carried out using the sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique according to the manufacturer's instructions. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-version11.5). Data were expressed in tables and figures as mean +/- S.D. The T-test, One-way ANOVA were used to compare between the groups (cases and control). The Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation between different variables.
Results: The current study showed a significant difference in the mean values of CA-125 in case (52.400 +/- 2.550) and control group (27.800 +/- 6.026 U/ml; p < 0.0001). Women with mild and severe preeclampsia had signi.cantly higher levels of CA-125 (50.869 +/- 1.816, and 54.470 +/- 1.841 U/ml, respectively, p < 0.0001), than in control group. CA-125 levels in mild and severe cases were positively correlated with blood pressure (r = 0.7275, p < 0.0001), and proteinuria (r = 0.3740, p = 0.0174).
Discussion: This study suggests that CA-125 is an essential biochemical marker that should be used to detect the underlying inflammatory process of preeclampsia. Increased cancer antigen-125 level is associated with the severity of preeclampsia. The study confirmed that preeclampsia is positively correlated with blood pressure and proteinuria.