DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i04.059

Pages: 1535-1540

Care for expectant mothers has been based on one over-riding objective that each pregnancy should result in a healthy mother and a healthy baby. Whilst the majority of pregnancies will progress satisfactorily with minimal intervention from caring professionals, there will always be the need to identify high risk groups for whom a greater degree of care is required. Hypertensive disorder of pregnancy is the most common complication in pregnancy and together they form one member of the deadly triad, along with haemorrhage and infection. So the study was undertaken to know the association of platelet counts with severity of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, and establish it as an easier and faster way to identify high risk groups. A total 156 primigravidas with singleton pregnancy, and no known medical disorder, in their third trimester were recruited from antenatal clinic and inpatient ward. The study group was further divided into 4 subgroups (gestational hypertension, mild pre-eclampsia, severe pre-eclampsia, eclampsia on the basis of BP, proteinuria and clinical symptoms. As a control group 78 healthy nulliparous singleton pregnant women were taken. Demographic data and haematological parameters were recorded and analysed. Mean platelet count in Hypertensive disorders is 1.56±.35 as compared to control 2.08 ±.21, which is statistically significant. In HDP cohort, when mean platelet count of severe pre-eclampsia (1.4±.2) is compared with mild pre-eclampsia (1.67±.32) and gestational hypertension (1.9±.25), the decreased in platelet count is statistically significant (p<.001). Hence it is concluded that the estimation of platelet count is an early, economical and rapid procedure of assessment of severity of Hypertensive cases and can have a significant impact on maternal and perinatal outcome.