J Clin Pathol Qual Control.  1997 Jun;19(1):151-160.

Change of Serum Lipids, Lipoproteins and Apolipoproteins in Normal Pregnant Women at Term

• Choi MH
• Lee JS
• Chung WS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many reports on the changes in the serum lipids during normal pregnancy have been made in western countries over the last 50 years. However, few reports on this theme were made in Korea, and there is still lack of agreement on the extent of the increase and the amount, rate and cause of the elevation. We investigated serum lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins level at term of normal pregnancy and tried to correlate them with each other. Furthermore, we attempted to investigate whether hyperlipidemia in pregnancy can predict hyperlipidemia and risk of ischemic heart disease in later life.
METHODS
Fasting serum concentrations of total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), apolipoprotein A1(apo A1), apolipoprotein B (apo B) and lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] were measured in 100 pregnant women with active labor and in a control group of 22 non-pregnant women of similar age during the period of 7 months from February to August, 1995. Data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and unpaired t-test.
RESULTS
Serum concentrations of total cholesterol, TG, LDL-C, apo A1 and apo B were significantly high (P<0.05) in pregnant women than non-pregnant control group. Serum TG in pregnant women increased more than 4-fold the amount of control group. And 38% more total cholesterol, 12% more LDL-C, 49% more apo A1 and 93% more apo B were measured in pregnant women. HDL-C and Lp(a) were not significantly increased in pregnant women((P<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
Hyperlipidemia is common (86% in this study) in pregnancy or a part of pathologic process is not fully known yet. So we investigated serum lipids, lipoproteins, apolipoproteins level in normal pregnant women and we recommend pregnant women, whose serum lipids level is markedly higher than the average of normal pregnant women of similar age, to study about family history and other risk of ischemic heart disease carefully.

MeSH Terms

Apolipoprotein A-I
Apolipoproteins B
Apolipoproteins*
Cholesterol
Fasting
Female
Humans
Hyperlipidemias
Korea
Lipoprotein(a)
Lipoproteins*
Myocardial Ischemia
Pregnancy
Pregnant Women*
Triglycerides
Apolipoprotein A-I
Apolipoproteins
Apolipoproteins B
Cholesterol
Lipoprotein(a)
Lipoproteins