PREGNANCY INDUCED HYPERTENSION;

ASSESSMENT OF PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF PLATELET COUNT IN WOMEN WITH VARYING DEGREE

Abstract

Objective: To assess the early detection of thrombocytopenia in women
presenting with varying degree of pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). Study Design: A case
control study. Place of Study: Hematology laboratory Isra University Hospital Hyderabad.
Duration of Study: From July 2009 to December 2010. Materials and Methods: Total 130
pregnant women were included in this study. The subjects were divided into three groups as
Group 1 with pre-eclampsia, Group 2 with eclampsia and Group 3 with normotensive pregnant
women as control group. The Group 1 was further divided into two sub groups such as Subgroup
1a with mild preeclampsia and Sub-group 2b with severe pre-eclampsia. Results:
Anticoagulated whole blood samples (5cc) from all subjects were analyzed for the detection of
thrombocytopenia for the possible involvement of pregnancy induced hypertension. It was noted
that out of total subjects, 33(25.39%) had mild pre-eclampsia, 17(13.07%) had severe preeclampsia,
15(11.54%) had eclampsia and 65 (50.0%) were normotensive pregnant women.
Based on the comparative findings, the results showed significant differences between group 3
and group 1a (p-value 0.001), group 3 and group 1b (p-value 0.001), group 2 and group 3 also
showed same results (p-value 0.001) but the subjects of group 1a and 1b when compared,
showed non-significant findings (p value 0.955). Conclusion: The results suggested that early
detection of platelet count provide significant role for the assessment of severity of disease in
women with pregnancy induced hypertension when compared with normotensive pregnant
women.