The association between serum betahuman Chorionic gonadotropin and Preeclampsia

Abstract

Background: Exact aetiology of this potentially fatal disorder remains poorly understood. A number of theories have been put forward where different biochemical markers have been implicated in the causal association of preeclampsia. This study was intended to find the association between serum b-hCG level and preclampsia

Methods: This cross-sectional, case-control study was conducted on 74 pregnant women with preeclampsia (cases) who were admitted in the Eclampsia ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka between January and July of 2013. A total of 76 normotensive pregnant women were also taken from the Obstetrics & Gynaecology Out-patient Department of the same hospital as control. The study subjects were selected on the basis of predefined eligibility criteria. The serum levels of b-hCG were compared between case and control groups as well as between mild and severe preeclampsia.

Result: The case and control groups were almost similar in terms of all the baseline demographic and obstetric characteristics except past history of PET which was significantly higher in the former group than that in the latter group. Majority (97.1%) of the cases had severe hypertension (74.3%) with mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures being 162.6 and 110.8 mmHg respectively. The mean serum ?-hCG was much higher in the case group than that in the control group (p<0.001). The mean serum ?-hCG was the highest in severe preeclampsia and the lowest in the control group, while that in mild preeclampsia lie in between the two (p<0.001). The serum ?-hCG exhibits a significantly linear correlation with systolic and diastolic blood pressures (p<0.001 respectively).

Conclusion: There was a significant difference between the ?-hCG level in the preeclamptic women compared to the normotensive pregnant women and the severity of preeclamsia increases with further rise of ?-hCG level.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jdmc.v23i1.22701

J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 23, No.1, April, 2014, Page 89-93