Plasma levels of digitalis-like substance in pregnancy-induced hypertension in Nigeria

Abstract

Digitalis-like substance or plasma inhibitor factor was measured by a competitive binding method in 56 subjects comprising: (1) 12 normotensive normally menstruating non-pregnant women without a family history of hypertension; (2) 13 normotensive normally menstruating non-pregnant women with a family history of hypertension; (3) 15 normotensive pregnant subjects without a family history of hypertension; and (4) 16 subjects with clinical features of pregnancy-induced hypertension. Even though the mean value (1.14 ± 0.12) of the inhibitor factor (expressed as KD ratios) in the non-pregnant women with family history was slightly higher than the mean value (0.95 ± 0.12) in the non-pregnant women without a family history, the difference did not attain statistical significance. The mean value (1.25 ± 0.24) of the inhibitor factor in the pregnant subjects without family history was, however, significantly elevated when compared with the non-pregnant subject without family history (P < 0.05). The inhibitor factor levels in the subjects with pregnancy-induced hypertension were generally lower than those of the normotensive pregnant subjects, although the difference was not statistically significant. The relevance of these results to the understanding of the pathophysiology of pregnancy-induced hypertension is discussed.