Table 3.

Pilot analysis comparing ambient BTEX levels (first trimester and mid-pregnancy) and inflammatory biomarkers by detectable vs. non-detectable benzene (PMA) and toluene (BMA) metabolites.

	PMA (benzene)				BMA (toluene)
Measure	Detectable	Non-detectable	P-value	Detectable	Non-detectable	P-value
N	8	17		21	4
First trimester BTEX (μg/m3)a	7.44±1.19	7.12±1.33	0.67	7.31±1.30	6.79±1.16	0.51
Mid-pregnancy BTEX (μg/m3)b	7.44±1.44	6.93±1.49	0.58	7.01±1.30	7.44±2.28	0.67
Log hs-CRP	1.14±0.80	0.91±0.98	0.76	1.05±0.82	0.62±1.41	0.48
Log IL-6	1.41±0.33	1.27±0.72	0.87	1.43±0.58	0.71±0.57	0.04
Log IL-10	0.55±0.27	0.37±0.31	0.13	0.50±0.18	0.08±0.56	0.11
Log IL-1β	−0.58±0.49	−0.35±0.49	0.28	−0.33±0.47	−0.84±0.42	0.04
Log TNF-α	1.84±0.74	1.85±0.79	0.87	1.95±0.78	1.35±0.51	0.15
IL-6/IL-10	2.44±0.79	2.92±1.85	0.63	2.92±1.67	2.11±1.27	0.31
IL-10/TNF-α	0.34±0.24	0.30±0.21	0.63	0.30±0.20	0.38±0.39	0.61

BTEX, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene; hs-CRP, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein; IL, interleukin; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α.

^aFirst trimester BTEX exposure is the average exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy

^bMid-pregnancy BTEX exposure is the average exposure from the start of pregnancy through the time of inflammatory biomarker measurement

Data are mean ± standard deviation.

Bold font indicates variable with P < 0.05