High C-Reactive Protein Serum Levels as a Risk Factor for Preeclampsia

Abstract

Introduction: Preeclampsia is a hypertensive syndrome in pregnancy characterized by increased blood pressure, proteinuria, and complications such as liver dysfunction and visual impairment. This condition is associated with an inflammatory reaction and failure of trophoblast invasion of maternal arteries, which involves an increase in proinflammatory cytokines that indirectly induce CRP production. However, data showing the value of CRP levels as an indicator of the incidence of preeclampsia in Indonesia is minimal. This study aims to evaluate CRP levels as a predictor of preeclampsia.Methods: This case-control study involved pregnant women with preeclampsia and normal pregnant women who went to the Obstetric Emergency Installation at Prof. Hospital. Dr. I.G.N.G Ngoerah Denpasar. All data were obtained from patient medical records and then analyzed using the SPSS v.22.Results: This study involved 56 pregnant women consisting of 28 normotensive pregnant women (control) and 28 pregnant women with preeclampsia (cases) at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah General Hospital Denpasar from January to December 2023. The median age was 27.5 years (control) and 26.0 years (cases), with an age range of 18–40 years. The median BMI WAS 21.65 kg/m2 (controls) and 21.80 kg/m2 (cases). Most patients in both groups were nulliparous (50.0%, controls; 42.9%, cases). Based on ROC analysis, the CRP cut-off value of 7.76 mg/dL has a sensitivity of 76.7%, specificity of 78.6%, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.737, where pregnant women with high CRP (≥7.76 mg/dL) had a 12.048-fold higher risk (95%CI 3.496–41.515; p < 0.001) of experiencing preeclampsia compared to pregnant women with low CRP levels.Conclusion: High serum CRP levels are a risk factor for preeclampsia. These findings indicate that measuring CRP levels can be a potential tool for identifying the risk of preeclampsia in the pregnant population.