The study of the relationship of serum ferritin and uterine contractions in pregnant women referred to medical centers of Isfahan

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Prenatal care is performed in order to diagnose high risk cases. Researchers have shown the significant relationship between high serum ferritin levels and preterm delivery. Preterm labors are one of the major risk factors in prediction of preterm delivery. Hence we performed this study in order to determine the frequency distribution of serum ferritin level and the relationship between serum ferritin level and preterm labors too.

METHODS: A descriptive and analytic research was performed on 267 pregnant women who referred to health centers of Isfahan. Data was collected using a questionnaire with interview, results of serum ferritin levels and hospital documents. Data was analyzed with T-test and SPSS software.

RESULTS: Serum ferritin levels according to 10, 25, 50, 75 and 90 percentiles are categorized in series of 8.6, 12.7, 20, 30.3 and 42.5 ng/ml; so samples were divided into six groups. A significant relationship between serum ferritin levels (after 28-30 weeks of pregnancy) and preterm labors was found (p = 0.029).

CONCLUSION: Considering the significant relation between serum ferritin and uterine contractions that are not caused by other reasons like smoking, it can be used as an indicator to find women who may have early uterine contractions. Our findings suggest that further researches about ferritin and related factors and pregnancy outcome are needed.

KEY WORDS: Serum ferritin, uterine contractions, preterm labors.