Table 3.

Serum levels of essential micronutrients in early and late pregnancy.

	Early pregnancy (16 weeks)			Late pregnancy (28 weeks)
	Obese n = 25	Lean n = 25	p *	Obese n = 25	Lean n = 25	p *
Iron (μmol/L)	15.7 (4.7)	23.4 (5.9)	<0.0001	12.5 (5.3)	14.7 (7.1)	0.24
Vitamin B12 (ng/L)	239.6 (87.7)	389.1 (138.4)	<0.0001	202.1 (56.2)	262.4 (96.4)	0.02
Folate (μg/L)	7.9 (4.2)	15.0 (2.7)	<0.0001	3.9 (2.8)	10.6 (5.7)	<0.0001
Vitamin A (μmol/L)	1.2 (0.26)	1.36 (0.28)	0.046	1.0 (0.24)	1.1 (0.31)	0.38
Vitamin E (μmol/L)	29.6 (6.74)	28.9 (5.78)	0.692	31.9 (8.46)	38.1 (7.21)	0.009
Cholesterol (mmol/L)	5.67 (0.82)	5.00 (0.85)	0.007	5.8 (0.79)	6.6 (0.94)	0.011
VitE/Chol	5.26 (1.04)	5.82 (0.91)	0.054	5.5 (1.06)	5.9 (0.86)	0.135
Copper (μmol/L)	32.9 (4.5)	26.1 (4.9)	<0.0001	34.4 (4.1)	28.2 (3.9)	<0.0001
Copper+ (μmol/L)	33.1 (4.4)	33.1 (5.3)	<0.0001	34.5 (4.3)	28.0 (3.7)	<0.0001
Zinc (umol/L)	9.7 (1.17)	10.7 (1.30)	0.008	9.1 (0.92)	9.3 (0.94)	0.413
Zinc/Albumin	0.32 (0.04)	0.31 (0.03)	0.172	0.32 (0.02)	0.32 (0.03)	0.958
Selenium (μmol/L)	0.85 (0.13)	1.02 (0.16)	<0.0001	0.79 (0.11)	0.89 (0.14)	0.009
Selenium+ (μmol/L)	0.89 (0.14)	1.00 (0.16)	0.050	0.85 (0.11)	0.87 (0.14)	0.437
Total 25OHD (nmol/L)++	51.1 (16.89)	68.1 (29.91)	0.070	45.5 (32.54)	68.7 (27.34)	0.093
CRP (mg/L)	12.0 (8.48)	3.7 (3.35)	<0.0001	13.4 (8.1)	4.7 (5.6)	0.001
Albumin (g/L)	30.1 (1.98)	34.5 (2.97)	<0.0001	28.1 (1.2)	29.3 (2.0)	0.034

Data are means (SD). * P-value for difference between obese and lean; ⁺ excluding samples with CRP ≥10 mg/L (as inflammatory response known to alter concentrations of these trace elements [18]); ⁺⁺ sufficient sample available for analysis in n = 13 lean and n = 15 obese in early pregnancy and n = 12 lean and n = 5 obese in late pregnancy.