title: The adiponectin/leptin ratio is a useful tool to evaluate the metabolic status in an obstetrical intensive care unit.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Critically ill patients, including obstetrical patients, face undernutrition but a reliable and cost effective study to assess their nutritional state is still missing. Our main objective was to analyze serum leptin and adiponectin concentrations in puerperal women attended in an Obstetrical Intensive Care Unit (OICU) in order to evaluate their potential role as nutritional metabolic parameter.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a descriptive, clinical, longitudinal and comparative study. We evaluated the anthropometric variables, clinical laboratories, daily calories and adiponectin and leptin serum levels of 16 puerperal women attended at the OICU of the Materno Perinatal Hospital "Mónica Pretelini" (HMPMP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For all women there was a negative correlation with Spearman test between leptin the day of discharge from the obstetrical intensive care unit and the days of stay -0.632 (p = 0.011). Considering an adiponectin/leptin ratio, the media in the first day was of 0.3 (0.07-13.6) and in the day of discharge it was of 2.4 (0.1-24.6) in overweight women. The same values for obese women were of 0.3 (0.2-0.4) and 0.5 (0.3-1.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After an average of six days of hospitalization, leptin showed a decrement in women attended at the OICU. As expected, adiponectin increased in both groups. The adiponectin/ leptin ratio could be a useful metabolic parameter.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Laboratory, Medical Research Center (CICMED), Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMex), Toluca, Mexico. mezh_74@yahoo.com
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mendieta Zerón
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Herrera Segura
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Layton Tovar
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Santillán Benítez
authors.forename: María del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Colín Ferreyra
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Trejo Sánchez
authors.forename: Laura Patricia
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Montenegro Morales
mesh_terms: D052242:Adiponectin; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D020738:Leptin; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D052242:Adiponectin; D020738:Leptin