Fetal Birthweight and Diastolic Blood Pressure: Association with Retinopathy in Severe Preeclampsia

Abstract

Purpose

To find the association of retinopathy in preeclampsia with fetal birthweight and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) in patients with mild and severe preeclampsia.

Methods

Medical records of patients with preeclampsia who delivered at term between January 2002 and December 2006 were included in the study Patients with preterm delivery, eclampsia, intrauterine fetal death, congenital defect in the fetus, and other systemic disorders were excluded. Parameters analyzed were retinopathy, systolic and diastolic BP, and fetal birthweight. Multivariable linear regression was used for statistical analysis. p value ≤0.05 was considered significant.

Results

The patients were divided into two groups: mild preeclampsia (MP) and severe preeclampsia (SP). The MP had 156 patients and SP had 104 patients. The mean systolic BP in MP and SP was 147.2 mmHg and 164.6 mmHg, while the mean diastolic BP in MP and SP was 98.6 mmHg and 112.7 mmHg. Severity of retinopathy was inversely associated with fetal birthweight (p=0.022) in SP, while it was insignificant in the MP (p=0.082). Low birthweight was due to intrauterine growth retardation of the fetus. Diastolic BP in the SP showed significant correlation with retinopathy (p=0.041). The systolic (p=0.55) and diastolic BP (p=0.248) in MP and systolic BP (p=0.803) in SP were insignificantly correlated with the retinopathy.

Conclusions

Retinopathy in preeclampsia may indirectly indicate the level of placental insufficiency and intrauterine growth retardation. The severity of retinopathy is more closely related with diastolic BP rather than systolic BP and the significance of this correlation increases in severe preeclampsia.