Authors: Nusrat Manzoor , Aalia Tayyaba , Zafar Iqbal Bhatti , Muhammad Tauseef Rauf , Hafiz Mohammmad Dawood , Asma Saadia

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. It affects the multiple organ systems of the maternal body and may also cause preterm labour, small for gestational age infants, low birth weight, retardation and fetal growth restriction. So, the objective is to determine the level of inflammatory marker i.e. C-reactive proteins in pre-eclamptic and normotensive pregnant women and to find out its correlations with foetal birth weight.
Methods: Analytical study was conducted in the different units of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Hussain Memorial Hospital and Surraya Azeem Hospital, Lahore from February 2018 to March 2019. The study included 59 cases with preeclampsia and 59 normotensive pregnant women, all in their 3rd trimester. All the females were in the age group of 20-40 years and had a BMI range of 18-25. High sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels were measured by Enzyme Link Immunosorbant Assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS (version 15). The values were significant at the 0.05 level of significance.
Results: C-reactive protein levels were significantly high (P<0.001) in the pre-eclamptic group with a median value of 8.8 (0.3 to 24.5) as compared to 5.4 (0.24 to 9.8) mg/l in the normotensive women. The birth weight of babies was low in the pre-eclamptic group. The high CRP levels were negatively correlated with foetal birth weight in the pre-eclamptic group.
Conclusion: Elevated C-reactive protein level in pregnant women is part of an increased maternal systemic inflammatory response and correlates with low foetal birth weight.

Keywords: Pre-eclampsia, C-reactive protein, Third trimester, Birth weight.