Toxoplasma gondii infection and pre-eclampsia among Sudanese women

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Vol. 112; no. 8; pp. 393 - 396
• Main Authors: Alshareef, Shimos A, Nasr, Abubakr M, Adam, Ishag
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.08.2018
• ISSN: 0035-9203; 1878-3503
• DOI: 10.1093/trstmh/try067

Pre-eclampsia is the main cause of maternal and perinatal adverse effects. Although the exact mechanism and pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia are not yet fully understood, there are recent studies on the association between various infections and pre-eclampsia. This study investigated the association between maternal Toxoplasma gondii infection and pre-eclampsia. A case-control study was conducted at Saad Abualila Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. The cases were pregnant women with pre-eclampsia and the controls were healthy pregnant women. Their obstetrics history was collected using a questionnaire. T. gondii antibodies (immunoglobulin G [IgG] and IgM) were analysed in the maternal serum of both the cases and the controls using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Maternal age and parity were not different between the cases and controls (90 women in each arm). There was a significant difference in the maternal anti-T. gondii IgG seropositivity, which was higher in the cases (pre-eclampsia) compared with the controls (32.3% vs 4.4%; p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the IgM seropositivity for T. gondii between the cases and controls (3.3% vs 1.1%; p=0.621). Binary logistic regression showed that women with toxoplasma IgG seropositivity were at higher risk for pre-eclampsia (odds ratio 9.40 [95% confidence interval 3.01 to 29.32]; p<0.001). In the current study, T. gondii infection seems to be associated with pre-eclampsia. Further research is needed.