Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive pregnancy disorder (HPD) that may happen after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Vitamin D is believed to be involved in PE development. The majority of studies on vitamin D and PE have been carried out in cases with small sample sizes, and hence, the results were not conclusive.
Objective: This study aimed to find the association between vitamin D status in normal pregnancy and PE.
Patients and methods: This cross-sectional observational study included 90 pregnant women who were divided into preeclamptic group and non-pre-eclamptic group (Control group), 45 cases in each group. Measurement of serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] level was conducted using an I 125 radioimmunoassay (DiaSorin).
Results: The mean level of vitamin D in the cases with PE was statistically significantly lower compared to the control group. There were 22 cases with PE and 23 cases with severe preeclampsia (sPE). The mean level of vitamin D in the cases with severe PE was statistically significantly lower compared to the cases with PE. The best cutoff point of serum vitamin D value to detect the cases with severe PE (sPE) was < 26.05 ng/dl with 83.3% sensitivity, 78.9% specificity and 81.8% accuracy. Conclusion: We concluded that 25(OH)D has a significant association with PE as revealed by the fact that pregnant females with low 25(OH)D concentration were more susceptible to PE development.