Incidence of Gestational Hypertension and Progression towards Preeclampsia in Ethiopia

DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.12582 FCS006

Awol Yemane (1); Hale Teka (1); Haftom Temesgen (2)

1 Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mekelle, Ethiopia

2 Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Biostatistics, Mekelle, Ethiopia

Objectives: To assess the incidence of gestational hypertension (GH), progression towards preeclampsia (PE) and factors associated with progression at a University Hospital in Ethiopia, 2016–2017.

Method: Two hundred fourty women presenting with gestational hypertension were enrolled in a prospective cohort study as an exposure, 480 women with normal BP and no systemic manifestation
were enrolled as non-exposure group. Clinical data at initial presentation and at follow up were compared among exposure who progressed to PE, exposure group who did not progress to PE, non-exposure
who did not develop PE and non-exposure who developed PE. Logistic regression analysis was employed to model the combined effects of the clinical and laboratory data as significant predictors of progression from GH to PE.

Results: Forty-one (17.1%) of the 240 women who initially presented with gestational hypertension (exposure) and 6 (1.2%) of the 480 normotensive (non-exposure) women developed pre-eclampsia. The incidence of gestational hypertension in this study was 6%. The rate of progression was 17%. Previous history of gestational hypertension, anemia during pregnancy, previous second trimester spontaneous abortion were significant predictors of progression.

Conclusions: Owing to the high rate of progression towards preeclampsia women with gestational hypertension should be cautiouly followed. In a resource limited setting where predictive and diagnostic tools are scarce, clinical profile of women should be taken into consideration for prediction and diagnosis of preeclampsia.