ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Systems Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1555277
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrated Diagnostics and Biomarker Discovery in Endocrinology and Biomedical Sciences: Volume IIView all 8 articles
The association between gestational hypothyroidism in pregnant women with preeclampsia, maternal liver function indicators, and neonatal birth weight: A study in Chinese pregnant women
Provisionally accepted
- 1Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Zhengzhou Central Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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Birth weight serves as a critical indicator of neonatal survival. Preeclampsia represents a serious complication during pregnancy and is closely associated with gestational hypothyroidism (GHT), both of which severely affect neonatal birth weight. Preeclampsia and hypothyroidism during pregnancy are usually accompanied by abnormalities of maternal liver function, which frequently leads to adverse pregnancy outcomes including low birth weight (LBW). This retrospective study utilized data from 420 cases of patients with preeclampsia who underwent prenatal examinations and delivery at department of Obstetrics. The association between preeclampsia combined with GHT in pregnancy, maternal liver function and neonatal birth weight was estimated using generalized linear model (GLM), and the potential partial mediating effects of maternal liver function were assessed through mediating models. Among pregnant women with preeclampsia, 11.0% had GHT, and the median (interquartile range) birth weight of all neonates was 2990.0 (2541.3, 3368.8) grams. Neonates born to pregnant women who had preeclampsia combine with GHT showed a higher incidence of LBW (χ²=22.13, P < 0.001), exhibited a significantly lower birth weight compared to those born to women with preeclampsia alone (β=-258.53 ; 95%CI :-398.56, -118.50). Additionally, maternal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were found to partially mediate this association (indirect effect :-50.85 , 95%CI :-101.07, -15.07). The findings of this study indicate that compared with pregnant women with preeclampsia alone, neonates born to pregnant women suffering from preeclampsia combined with GHT have significantly lower birth weights, with maternal ALT levels acting as a potential partial mediator in this association. These results provide an important reference for clinicians to monitor thyroid and liver function in patients with preeclampsia.
Keywords: Birth Weight, Preeclampsia, Gestational hypothyroidism, Liver function, Mediating model
Received: 04 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gang, Fang, Qing, Yan, Lian, Dan, Xia and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Tian Gang, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
Li Li, Zhengzhou Central Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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