Pre-eclampsia is associated with, and preceded by, hypertriglyceridaemia: a meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Elevated triglycerides are a feature of the metabolic syndrome, maternal obesity, maternal vasculitis (i.e. systemic lupus erythematosus) and diabetes mellitus. These conditions are all known risk factors for pre-eclampsia. Hypertriglyceridaemia therefore may be associated with pre-eclampsia and indeed this may precede the presence of overt disease.


OBJECTIVE
In this study we determine the association between hypertriglyceridaemia and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.


SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Excerpta Medica Database, ISI Web of Knowledge, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library from inception until June 2012 and reference lists of relevant studies.


SELECTION CRITERIA
Two reviewers independently selected studies on pregnant women where triglycerides were measured and women were followed up until the development of pre-eclampsia or selected on the basis of presence of pre-eclampsia and compared with controls.


DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We collected and meta-analysed the weighted mean differences (WMDs) of triglyceride levels from individual studies using a random effects model.


MAIN RESULTS
We found strong evidence from meta-analysis of 24 case-control studies (2720 women) that pre-eclampsia is associated with higher levels of serum triglycerides (WMD 0.78 mmol/l, 95% confidence interval 0.6-0.96, P < 0.00001). This finding is also confirmed in five cohort studies, that recruited 3147 women in the second trimester before the onset of pre-eclampsia, which proves that hypertriglyceridaemia precedes the onset of pre-eclampsia (WMD 0.24 mmol/l, 95% confidence interval 0.13-0.34, P < 0.0001).


AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS
Hypertriglyceridaemia is associated with and precedes the onset of pre-eclampsia. Further research should focus on defining the prognostic accuracy of this test to identify women at risk and the beneficial effect of triglyceride-lowering therapies in pregnancy.
['Gallos|I D|ID|', 'Sivakumar|K|K|', 'Kilby|M D|MD|', 'Coomarasamy|A|A|', 'Thangaratinam|S|S|', 'Vatish|M|M|']
D005260:Female D006801:Humans D015228:Hypertriglyceridemia D011225:Pre-Eclampsia D011247:Pregnancy D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third D012307:Risk Factors
pre-eclampsia Meta-analysis triglycerides predictive marker systematic review