Pre-Eclampsia in Women with Raised C-Reactive Protein Levels Before 20th Week of Gestation; A Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: To assess the association of pre-eclampsia in women with raised CRP before 20 weeks of gestation. Study Design: Prospective cohort study, Place and Duration of Study: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Civil Hospital, Karachi Pakistan, from Jan to Aug 2019. Methodology: One hundred and sixty-eight women were included. 84 of 168 women had raised CRP, called as ExposedGroup, and 84 had normal CRP, called as Unexposed-Group. Blood samples were sent to assay serum CRP. Patients were thenfollowed up until the third trimester to observe whether women with elevated serum CRP >5 mg/l or women with normal levels of CRP developed pre-eclampsia. Results: The average age of the women was 26.30±5.15 years. The pre-eclampsia was significantly high in the Exposed-Group as compared to the Unexposed-Group (p=0.019). The pre-eclampsia was two times more likely in the Exposed-Group as compared to the Unexposed-Group (RR=1.73; 95% CI 1.07-2.79). Conclusion: Pre-eclampsia is more likely to occur before 20 weeks of pregnancy in women having raised CRP. Therefore, effective monitoring of CRP could help in timely management and prevent severity.

Keywords

• Body mass index
• Pre-eclampsia
• C-reactive protein
• Pregnancy
• Parity