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

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is multi-systemic hypertensive pregnancy disorder accompanied by proteinuria. OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of different presentations of preeclampsia in tertiary care hospital and find out its risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.