Incidence and Risk Factors of Pre-eclampsia Among Iraqi Pregnant women

Abstract

Pre-eclampsia is one of the most important gestational disorders that lead to both maternal and fetal bad outcomes. There are many risk factors that are
associated and augment the disease process of pre-eclampsia. Many hypotheses have been introduced to explain why such condition is obviously seen after 20 weeks¢ gestation. The most accepted of these relies on both immunological and vascular involvement. This clinical study was designed to evaluate and report the incidence of the most common risk factors that were associated with preeclampsia. One hundred pre-eclamptic patients and (60) normal pregnant women as controls were collected where all pregnant women received a detailed inquiry about their pregnancies, medical histories and antenatal cares. The study showed that there were certain risk factors significantly associated with pre-eclampsia incidence P<0.05 and these were gestational age (P-0.002), family history (P<0.001), multifetal pregnancy (P-0.009), previous abortion (P<0.001), medical history including UTI and DM (P<0.001) and social status (P-0.002),
where as maternal age (P-0.81) and Rh factor (P-0.985) were insignificant risk factors for pre-eclampsia incidence.
These findings suggest that gestational age, family history, multifetal pregnancy , previous abortion , medical history including UTI and DM and social status should be considered as important determent risk factors in the evaluation and diagnosis of pre-eclampsia by obstetricians