Study of serum uric acid and creatinine in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Renal dysfunction, increased xanthine oxidase activity and oxidative stress in placenta contributes to the elevated uric acid levels in preeclampsia (PE). OBJECTIVE: To determine serum uric acid and creatinine in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and correlate with fetal outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pregnant women ≥32 weeks of gestation. Study population included 3 groups, 31 normotensive pregnant (NP) women as controls, 30 pregnant women with gestational hypertension (GH) and 30 with PE. RESULT: Serum uric acid and creatinine levels were significantly elevated in PE (6.26±1.19 and 0.94±0.26 mg/dL) when compared with Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) (4.27± 1.0 and 0.66 ±0.19 mg/dL) and NP (4.25 ± 0.8 and 0.63± 0.13 mg/dL) (P-value <0.001 and <0.001) respectively. Receiver operation characteristics curves demonstrated greater sensitivity and specificity for uric acid (86.7% and 83.9%, respectively) in PE than for creatinine (80% and 77.4%, respectively). Uric acid had strong and negative correlation with fetal birth weight in PE (r = −0.59, P = 0.006), where as creatinine had negative but weak correlation (r= −0.03, P=0.87). CONCLUSION: Serum uric acid is a better diagnostic and predictive marker for PE and fetal outcome respectively.