A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE HEMORHEOLOGICAL PROFILE IN THE 3RD TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY - NORMAL AND WITH PREGNANCY INDUCED HYPERTENSION

About twenty PIH cases and twenty normal pregnant women in their third trimester were subjected to haemorheological investigations. The whole blood viscosity (wbv) and plasma viscosity (pv) were significantly higher in the PIH group than in the normal group. Filterability index (I), haematocrit and plasma fibrinogen were not significantly elevated. Diastolic pressure in PIH was not significantly correlated with any of these viscosity parameters. However whole blood viscosity was significantly correlated and filterability was highly significantly correlated with foetal distress. This implies the role of pathohaemorheology in malperfusion in the foeto-placental circulation and subsequent perinatal morbidity associated with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH)