Urinary excretion of 6-keto prostaglandin F1 alpha in pre-eclampsia.

In order to investigate whether urinary excretion of prostaglandins (PG) is involved in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia, urinary immunoreactive 6-keto PGF1 alpha and TXB2 were measured in normal and pre-eclamptic women by radio-immunoassay after extraction with Bond Elut column. Urinary levels of 6-keto PGF1 alpha and TXB2 were expressed as ratio of urinary concentration of prostaglandin vs. creatinine (pg prostaglandin/mg creatinine; pg/mg cre.). Urinary excretion in normal pregnant and postpartum women were 211.2 +/- 33.8 and 160.1 +/- 9.1 pg/mg cre., respectively. In the pre-eclamptic group, urinary excretion of 6-keto PGF1 alpha was 105.3 +/- 28.2 pg/mg cre. in pregnancy and 99.0 +/- 12.5 pg/mg cre. in the postpartum period. Urinary excretion of 6-keto PGF1 alpha in the pre-eclamptic group was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) than in normal controls during pregnancy but not in the postpartum period. Urinary excretion of TXB2 was not significantly different between the two groups. The urinary excretion of 6-keto PGF1 alpha was measured before and after the onset of pre-eclampsia in four cases of edema and weight gain of more than 500 g/week (group e), one case of proteinuria of more than 200 mg/dl with edema (group ep) and three cases of pre-eclampsia (group eph). The urinary excretion of 6-keto PGF1 alpha in these eight patients before onset of pre-eclampsia was slightly lower than of normal controls but not significantly so. In group eph, urinary excretion of PG was decreased after the onset of pre-eclampsia. These results provide further evidence of the involvement of PG in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia.