Cytokines Profile at the Beginning of Pregnancy

Pregnant women older than 18 years old were invited to participate and all were asked to sign the informed consent. Women with congenital heart disease, disabling diseases, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases were excluded and those whose clinical follow-up was lost were discarded from the final analysis.

Weight and height were measured using a calibrated using an adult scale (Seca, Hamburg, Germany). Blood Pressure (BP; mmHg) was checked by auscultation using a standard sphygmomanometer (Riester Big Ben® Square; Jangingen, Germany). All mothers received written nutritional guidance depending on the characteristics of each patient.

The expression levels of IL-10, IL-4, IFN-γ and TNF-α was performed by the ELISA technique.

Quantitative variables will be represented by measures of central tendency. Once the Kolmogorov test is performed for the normality of the variables, either the Student's T test or the Mann Whitney U test will be used to compare both groups. With the same criteria for normality either Pearson or Spearmen correlation will be used among the cytokines and anthropometric variables, considering a significant difference at p ≤ 0.05. The statistical analysis will be carried out in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program, version 19.

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women older than 18 years old were invited to participate and all were asked to sign the informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Women with congenital heart disease, disabling diseases, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases were excluded and those whose clinical follow-up was lost were discarded from the final analysis.