Relationship between Vitamin D Status in Normal Pregnancy and Preeclampsia

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.‎