Maternal serum uric acid: a reliable prognostic indicator of foetal outcome among pre-eclamptic patients in a low resource setting.

BACKGROUND: Pre-eclampsia is a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Hyperuricemia is often associated with pre-eclampsia and when this occurs, fetal outcome may become worse. We evaluated the role of maternal serum uric acid as a prognostic indicator of fetal outcome in pre-eclamptic mothers. METHODS: A prospective case-control study in which 55 eligible pre-eclamptic patients at term were matched in maternal age and gestational age with 55 consecutive normotensive pregnant women. Venous blood samples were obtained and analyzed for serum uric acid. Following delivery, the fetal outcomes in the pre-eclamptic group and controls were determined. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS (version 21) and the level of statistical significance was set at p-value <.05. RESULTS: The mean serum uric acid levels of the pre-eclamptic subjects was significantly higher compared to their normotensive counterparts (12.7 ± 7.8 vs. 4.9 ± 1.2 mg/dL, p = .000). Babies with low birth weight, poor Apgar scores (at 1st and 5th minute of life) and those who required neonatal unit admission occurred more significantly among the pre-eclamptic women when compared with the controls (p = .000). However, the live birth rate of the case and control groups was comparable (94.5% vs. 100%, p = .079), Binary logistic regression analysis revealed a positive association between hyperuricemia and pre-eclampsia (OR = 18.8; 95% CI = 1.22-289.35, p = .035). Pre-eclamptic mothers with hyperuricemia had 4.41 odds of delivering babies with low birth weight when compared with pre-eclamptics without hyperuricemia (OR = 4.41; 95% CI = 0.76-25.5, p = .097); but Apgar scores and need for neonatal admission showed no association with maternal serum uric acid levels. CONCLUSION: This study therefore suggests that hyperuricemia is a strong prognostic indicator of LBW babies among women with pre-eclampsia.

Implementing the 2013 WHO diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus in a Rural Nigerian Population.

INTRODUCTION: the World Health Organization (WHO) reviewed the threshold values required for the diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) in 2013 and the implementation of the new diagnostic criteria have been associated with increase in the prevalence of GDM in some populations. The new cohort of pregnant women that will be labeled to have GDM by the 2013 WHO diagnostic criteria but not by the 1999 WHO diagnostic criteria will pose additional burden to specialized antenatal care, though their pregnancy outcome may not warrant such care. It is thus important to first determine the effect of the implementation of these new consensus diagnostic criteria on the prevalence of GDM in our environment. METHODS: this is a prospective hospital-based study that compared the implementation of both 1999 and 2013 WHO GDM diagnostic criteria among 117 pregnant women who were initially screened with 50-gram Glucose Challenge Test (50-g GCT). Women with a positive Glucose Challenge Test (GCT) result underwent a 75-gram Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (75-g OGTT), which was used as the actual diagnostic test for GDM using both 2013 WHO and 1999 WHO diagnostic criteria. Associations between variables were tested using Chi-square, Fisher's exact and t-test as appropriate. Significance level was set at P value < 0.05. RESULTS: the prevalence rates of GDM in the study were 2.6% and 7.7% for 1999 WHO and 2013 WHO criteria respectively. Clinical characteristics were similar in women with GDM and women without GDM. The fasting component of the OGTT identified all the women with GDM. CONCLUSION: the implementation of the 2013 WHO diagnostic criteria is associated with a 2.5 to 3-fold rise in the prevalence of GDM. Selective risk-factor based screening may be clinically irrelevant with the adoption of the 2013 WHO diagnostic criteria. A minimum of fasting plasma glucose in resource poor settings can be considered to identify women with GDM since it appeared to have 100% sensitivity in our study.