Evaluation of Copper Status and Some Red Cell Parameters of Pregnant Women in Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Copper is an essential trace mineral (micronutrient) that is naturally present in some foods and is available as a dietary supplement. Pregnancy, also known as gestation, is the time during which one or more offspring develops inside a woman.This study was desiged to assay the copper level of pregnant women in urban area and to evaluate  the effect of the obtained valves on some blood parameters of the pregnant women. In this study, a total of 100 subjects and 50 controls was used. subjects were pregnant women while the controls were non-pregnant women. The copper level in subject was assayed with a serum copper test kit using automation with Bio E-lab fully automated chemistry analyzer and result of the complete blood count was gotten using Mindray Hematology analyzer. The mean for subjects (M=102.83±1.38) and control (M=102.68±0.94), p = 0.71. These results suggest that the difference between the copper level for subjects and controls is not really much.. The variables copper level and MCV were found to be slightly correlated, r(150) = ..018., p > .005. Additionally, copper levels in the subjects was also found to negatively correlated with MCH, r(150) = .907, p > .005. One-way analysis of variance showed that the correlation of copper levels was not significant on all of the red bloodcell parameters in the serum of the pregnant women.