Serum Uric Acid as a Predictor of Perinatal Outcome in Women with Pre-Eclampsia

Background and objectives: Pre-eclampsia is one of the medical complication of pregnancy and contributes\ud significantly to maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Hyperuricemia is often associated with preeclampsia.\ud The objective of this study was to assess serum uric acid in group of women with pre-eclampsia and to evaluate its diagnostic effect on perinatal outcome. Patients and methods: This is a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city, Iraq. Convenient sample size of 200 participants preeclamptic pregnant women with ≥ 34 weeks of gestation in different level of hypertension were included. After getting informed consent from participant who were diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (hypertension and proteinuria), all sociodemographic information was collected from 1st June 2017 to 19th January 2018. Blood samples were obtained to assess serum uric acid besides other investigation routinely done and fetal outcome (birth weight, gestational age, intrauterine death, Apgar score, admission to neonatal care unit, intrauterine growth restriction and early neonatal death) was evaluated. Results: Serum uric acid was ≥ 6 mg/dL in 127 (63.5%) among all pre-eclamptic women.\ud There was positive significant association between means of serum uric acid at different levels of hypertension with\ud p=0.000 in ANOVA and x2 test. This study revealed significant association between increased level of serum uric\ud acid and bad fetal outcome (birth weight, gestational age, intrauterine death, Apgar score, admission to neonatal\ud care unit, intrauterine growth restriction and early neonatal death and Apgar score in 1st minute). Conclusion: This\ud study revealed significant raised level of serum uric acid among pre-eclamptic women and significant effect on fetal\ud outcome and perinatal morbidity and mortality