Abstract:

Objective To investigate the distribution range of serum vitamin E（Vit E） levels in single pregnant women during different gestational weeks. Methods A total of 478 non-pregnant and 3 558 single pregnant women aged 20-35 years and took progestational or gestational healthy examination were enrolled. According to gestational weeks,these pregnant women were classified into 9 groups,6-8,9-12,13-16,17-20,21-24,25-28,29-32,33-36 and 37-40 gestational week groups. Based on the method of high-performance liquid chromatography,the levels of Vit E in serum were evaluated. Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between serum Vit E level and pregnancy. The percentile method [P₅₀（P_2.5-P_97.5）] was used to determine the distribution range of Vit E during different gestational weeks. Results Vit E levels in serum of non-pregnant women had no statistical significance among the age groups（P>0.05）. The difference of Vit E levels had no statistical significance among the non-pregnant,6-8,9-12 gestational week groups,and among the 29-32,33-36,37-40 gestational week groups（P>0.05）. The levels of Vit E gradually increased with the pregnancy in 13-16,17-20,21-24,25-28 gestational week groups（P<0.05,P<0.01）. By Spearman correlation analysis,the Vit E levels had a positive correlation with the gestational weeks（r=0.66,P<0.01）. Merged the gestational weeks whose Vit E levels had no statistical significance,the distribution ranges of serum Vit E level in different gestational weeks were established by percentile method：6-12 gestational weeks 10.00（6.20-17.11） mg/L,13-16 gestational weeks 11.60（7.70-18.29） mg/L,17-20 gestational weeks 12.60（8.70-18.20） mg/L,21-24 gestational weeks 14.00（9.40-21.40） mg/L,25-28 gestational weeks 15.20（9.70-22.50） mg/L and 29-40 gestational weeks 16.80（10.11-25.50） mg/L. Conclusions From 13 to 28 gestational weeks,the level of Vit E increases. The upper limit of Vit E distribution ranges in the groups of 21-40 gestational weeks is higher than that of healthy adults.

Key words: Vitamin E, Pregnancy, Distribution range