Comparison of Pseudocholinesterase Activity between Nonpregnant and Term-pregnant Women with the Genotypically Normal Enzyme.

Park,  Soo Jin; Baik,  Hee Jung; Kim,  Kiu Sam; Cho,  Dae Soon

doi:1996.31.5.613

Korean Journal of Anesthesiology 1996;31(5):613-618.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1996.31.5.613

Soo Jin Park, Hee Jung Baik, Kiu Sam Kim, Dae Soon Cho

¹Department of Anesthesiology, Hanil Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Anesthesiology, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Many reports on the change of pseudocholinesterase activity in pregnant women showed that it declines during pregnancy and in the immediate postpartum period. In Korea, there are two papers that show dissident results. However, they didn't prove that the subjects in their studies had genotypically normal enzyme. So, we compared the pseudocholinesterase activities between nonpregnant and term-pregnant women who have the genotypically normal enzyme.
METHODS
We measured the dibucaine, fluoride, chloride number as well as the pseudocholinesterase astivity using butyrylthiocholine as substrate by automatic analyser, urea and scoline numbers using benzoylcholine as substrate by manual technique in nonpregnant(n=15) and term-pregnant(n=15) women aging 20 to 40 years old before induction of anesthesia.
RESULTS
The dibucaine, fluoride, chloride, urea and scoline numbers(mean+/-SD,%) in female subjects were 86+/-1.2, 50+/-5.2, 5+/-2.4, 47+/-2.8 and 92+/-2.0, respectively. There were two subjects showing low pseudocholinesterase activity(<4.8 U/ml) and the one(3.9 U/ml) was in nonpregnant group, the other(4.5 U/ml) in term-pregnant group. We found that they had genotypically normal enzymes because their inhibition numbers were within normal ranges. Pseudocholinesterase activity(mean+/-SD) in term-pregnant group(7.04+/-1.30) was significantly decreased compared with that in nonpregnant group(9.15+/-2.01)(P<0.01).
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that in subjects with the genotypically normal enzyme, term-pregnant women had significantly lower pseudocholinesterase activity than nonpregnant ones did.

Key Words: Biotransformation pseudocholinesterase; genotypically normal enzyme; Pregnancy term