Various Presentations of Preeclampsia at Tertiary Care Hospital of Sindh: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Preeclampsia is multi-systemic hypertensive pregnancy disorder accompanied by proteinuria. To determine the frequency of different presentations of preeclampsia in tertiary care hospital and find out its risk factors. The present study was hospital-based cross-sectional study and conducted from 1st August 2015 to 31st July 2016 in Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Hyderabad after ethical approval. A total of 112 pre-eclamptic women were enrolled during the study period by non-probability consecutive sampling. Patients were divided on the basis of their presentations into mild preeclampsia, severe preeclampsia, antepartum eclampsia, intrapartum eclampsia, HELLP syndrome, postpartum preeclampsia, postpartum eclampsia and atypical preeclampsia/eclampsia. All the sociodemographic factors and clinical variables were noted. Frequency and percentage were calculated for categorical variable and mean/standard deviation (SD) for continuous variables. Of the 112 preeclamptic women, 54.5% were admitted with antepartum eclampsia, 12.5% with severe preeclampsia, 8.9% with atypical preeclampsia/eclampsia, 8% with mild preeclampsia, 8% with postpartum eclampsia, 3.6% with HELLP syndrome, 2.7% with intrapartum eclampsia and 1.8% with postpartum preeclampsia. Overall, majority of the patients were primigravida (57%), had gestational age >34 weeks at presentation (58.9%) and < 7 antenatal visits (88.3%) during their pregnancy. Overall 17.8% had previous bad obstetrical events, 11.6% had previous history of preeclampsia and 64.3% had consanguineous marriages. Different presentations of preeclampsia may help obstetricians to rule out high- risk pregnancies and provide antenatal care to patients earlier to prevent complications to both mother and fetus.