ABSTRACT
Background: Present study carried out in a tertiary referral hospital in South India attempts to determine the predictive value of integrated screening at 11-14-week antenatal visit. Objectives: To determine the detection rate of fetal abnormalities at 11-14 weeks and also to predict the placental dysfunction disorders based on early integrated evaluation. Method: Integrated screening performed on 440 women between 11 and 14 weeks, including detailed maternal history [medical history, bad obstetric history (BOH)], body mass index (BMI), mean arterial pressure (MAP), detailed ultrasound and maternal serum biochemistry as part of combined first-trimester screening for aneuploidy. Results: There were two proven Down's syndrome foetuses; both detected with combined screening test. There were 12 fetuses with major anomalies, out of whom 7 (58.3%) detected in 11-14-week scan. Among 440, 114 pregnancies (25.9%) developed complications in pregnancy, including 33 (7.5%) gestational hypertension, 8 (1.8%) pre-eclampsia, 41 (9.38%) SGA, 13 (2.9%) abortions, 22 (5%) indicated and 9 (2.04%) spontaneous preterm deliveries, 38 (8.63%) GDM and 3 (0.6%) stillbirth/IUD. Among the risk factors, age >35 years, BMI >23 kg/m2, BOH, MAP >105 mmHg and PAPP-A <0.5 MoM correlated well with adverse outcome. Using early integrated screening, 78.9% of obstetric complications could be predicted although 306 (69.5%) were labeled high risk, among whom 90 (29.4%) developed adverse pregnancy outcomes. Conclusions: Majority of fetal abnormalities can be detected, and majority adverse pregnancy outcomes can be predicted at 11-14-week antenatal visit, although this study shows high screen positivity and low specificity in a tertiary referral unit.
ABSTRACT
Background. Progressive proteinuria indicates worsening of the condition in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and hence its quantification guides clinician in decision making and treatment planning. Objective. To evaluate the efficacy of spot dipstick analysis and urinary protein-creatinine ratio (UPCR) in hypertensive disease of pregnancy for predicting 24-hour proteinuria. Subjects and Methods. A total of 102 patients qualifying inclusion criteria were evaluated with preadmission urine dipstick test and UPCR performed on spot voided sample. After admission, the entire 24-hour urine sample was collected and analysed for daily protein excretion. Dipstick estimation and UPCR were compared to the 24-hour results. Results. Seventy-eight patients (76.5%) had significant proteinuria of more than 300 mg/24 h. Dipstick method showed 59% sensitivity and 67% specificity for prediction of significant proteinuria. Area under curve for UPCR was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.83 to 0.95, P < 0.001) showing 82% sensitivity and 12.5% false positive rate for cutoff value of 0.45. Higher cutoff values (1.46 and 1.83) predicted heavy proteinuria (2 g and 3 g/24 h, resp.). Conclusion. This study suggests that random urinary protein : creatine ratio is a reliable investigation compared to dipstick method to assess proteinuria in hypertensive pregnant women. However, clinical laboratories should standardize the reference values for their setup.
