Comparative study of serum uric acid levels in preeclamptic and normal pregnant women and its related outcomes

Background and Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder in pregnancy and is known as a specific syndrom of pregnancy. Several studies have been done to asses the indicators of preeclampsia for early detection of the disease. Uric acid is considered by some investigators as one of the most sensetive indicators in preeclampsia. In contrast some researchers have found it not useful in prediction of preeclampsia. Hence, more studies are needed about the role of uric acid levels in diagnosis of preeclampsia. The aim of this research is to compare the serum uric acid levels in preeclamptic and normal pregnant women and its sensivity as an indicator of preeclampsia. In this case-control study 304 pregnant women were enrolled in the study at Fatmeh Zahrah Hospital of Sari. Among them, 151 preeclamptic women were allocated in case group and 153 healthy pregnant women in control group. SPSS were used for analysis of data and variables were compared by Chi square, ANOVA, Pearson correlation index, and sensivity and specifity were calculated. Difference in the number of term delivery and primi gravidity between the three groups (normal, mild and severe preeclampsia) were significant (P<0.05). Considering maternal and fetal outcomes, only Decolman (two cases) had no significant difference between 3 groups. Mean of uric acid levels differed between three groups (P<0.0001). Severe preeclampsia had the most significant difference with normal group. Elevated uric acid (defined as up of 5.5 mg/dl) was observed in 34/2% in hyperuricemia group, 71.2 % in preeclamtic and 28.8% in control group (P<0.0001) The sensivity of uric acid levels for determining the preeclampsia and its severity elevated with increasing in concentration of uric acid but the specifity decreased. Results showed that the sensivity of uric acid levels in diagnosis of preeclampsia is moderate and measuring uric acid can be used in determining the severity of preeclampsia, maternal and specially fetal outcomes (LBW, preterm, IUGR, low apgar).