Outcomes in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in the North Indian population

INTRODUCTION: Hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy seriously endanger the safety of the mother and fetus during pregnancy. Very few studies have explored hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in India, even though this disease has been associated with adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. This study aimed to analyze the disease pattern and risk factors associated with the disorder and assess the maternal and fetal outcomes in cases of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This case-control study was carried out over 1 year from 2011 to 2012 at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. A total of 149 patients were enrolled in the study. As seven were lost to follow-up, analysis was carried out on 142 cases. Patients were further classified according to the National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group (2000) as having mild preeclampsia (65 cases), severe preeclampsia (32 cases), or eclampsia (45 cases). Thirty-one healthy pregnant non-hypertensive women were enrolled into the study as controls. RESULTS: The most common manifestation was edema, seen in 90% of cases. Proteinuria was also relatively common, 26.76% of patients with proteinuria of ≥300 mg/24 hours, 47.88% with proteinuria of ≥2 g/24 hours, and 25.35% with a urinary protein excretion of 3–5 g/24 hours. Central nervous system involvement was observed in 42.2% of cases, elevated bilirubin levels in 47.0%, visual symptoms in 6.4%, vaginal bleeding in 11.3%, and HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count) syndrome was reported in 2.80%. Maternal deaths occurred in 2.8% of cases, all of which were from the eclampsia group. Stillbirths occurred in 16.9% of cases, and overall neonatal death observed in 4.23% of cases. CONCLUSION: Women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were more prone to adverse maternal and fetal outcomes than normotensive pregnant women, but we observed a decreasing trend in the present study compared with that reported in other studies, which might be due to the increased number of hospital deliveries that occurred in our study.