Abstract
objective: To assess plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) level in pregnant andpreeclamptic women, and to evaluate the role of this hormone in the defense mechanismagainst body fluids and electrolytes disorders encountered under such physiologicaland pathophysiological conditions.Design: A case- series study.Setting: Al - Batool Teaching Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics, Mosul, during the period from December 2003 to September 2004.Participants: Twenty five women with normal pregnancy (group I ), 25 pregnant women withpreeclampsia (group ll ) and 25 healthy non pregnant women (control group) were included in this study.Methods: Plasma ANP, serum creatinine, urea, sodium and potassium were measured in allgroups. unpaired -t-test was used to examine the difference in the mean of the studiedparameters between different groups. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationbetween different parameters within each group.Results: The mean of plasma ANP level was significantly higher in group I (p
