Variability of lipid hydroperoxides in pregnant and nonpregnant women

Lipid peroxidation is thought to be important in numerous disease states, i ncluding pregnancy complications. Study of its role requires markers, but t he variability of available markers in non-diseased populations has not bee n well-characterized. We examined the variability over time of blood lipid hydroperoxides, as measured by iodometric analysis, in 49 healthy young wom en, 21 nonpregnant and 28 pregnant. Lipid hydroperoxides from the same woma n were very similar from one day to the next but were less stable over peri ods of a month or more, The correlation between measurements on consecutive days was 0.98; the correlation between measurements a month or more apart was 0.11.Variability over time was not attributable to seasonal effects or, among the pregnant women, to differences over the course of pregnancy, Kno wledge of the variability of this and other markers of oxidative damage ena bles the development of appropriate study designs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Inc.