DISCUSSION
During pregnancy, maternal metabolic environment is modified
by the alterations in maternal hormones and a pronounced
hyperlipidemia is considered as physiological. But in pre-eclampsia,
these changes in lipid metabolism are exaggerated and are a major
cause of endothelial dysfunction that is reduced vasodilation and
anticoagulant properties as well as increased adhesion molecule
expression, cytokine release and reactive oxygen species production
from the endothelium. In the present study, the mean gestational age
of patients was 36.48 weeks with a standard deviation of ±1.418
weeks and is similar with the finding of Sahu et al., (36.3±2.9 weeks)
and Cekman et al., (36.4±1.2 weeks) [15,16]. There was a significant
difference in systolic as well as diastolic blood pressure between
cases and controls (p