Anamika Singh1, Naresh Pal Singh2, Santosh Kumar Sant3, Kirti Jaiswal4
BACKGROUND
Pregnancy is a normal physiological process, which is often associated with various complications and pre-eclampsia is one of them. It is associated with abnormal liver functions with poor maternal and foetal outcome. Parenchymal necrosis of liver causes elevation in hepatic enzymes. This condition can easily be prevented.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out among 70 pre-eclamptic pregnant women and 70 normal pregnant females. Blood examination was done to evaluate the liver function by assessing the haemoglobin, serum bilirubin, serum Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALK-P) levels in the two study groups. Data was analysed using mean, standard deviation and Student’s unpaired t-test.
RESULTS
The mean age of study subjects in group I and II were 25.6 ± 3.7 years and 25.1 ± 3.9 years, respectively. The mean systolic blood pressure (±SD) of the pre-eclamptic subjects (group I) was 156.5 ± 18.4 mmHg and of the normal pregnant women (group II) was 117.2 ± 8.9 mmHg and this difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p<0.001). The mean value of serum Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) ± SD in the group I (pregnancy with pre-eclampsia) was 48.4 ± 29.5 IU/L, and in the group II (normal pregnancy), it was 20.8 ± 8.5 IU/L (p <0.001). The mean values of serum ALT (±SD) in the group I was 39.6 ± 24.0 IU/L, and in group II, it was 23.6 ± 6.9 IU/L (p <0.001).
CONCLUSION
Pre-eclampsia during pregnancy is associated with deranged serum liver enzymes, which can be prevented by routine screening of all the pregnant females for presence of hypertension and later on proteinuria.
