Factors predictive of perinatal outcome in pregnancies complicated by hypertension

Abstract

Perinatal outcome and various indicators of perinatal risk were analyzed in a prospective study of 268 pregnant women with hypertension. Poor perinatal outcome was defined by stillbirth (n = 13), neonatal death (n = 2), and in surviving babies, by birth before 32 weeks or a birthweight below 1500 g (n = 13). In multivariate analysis, proteinuria and onset of hypertension between the 27th and 36th weeks of amenorrhea were the only two independent indicators of poor outcome (relative risks of 4.0 and 3.7, p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.01 respectively). Both these indicators were more frequent in mothers with no history of pre-pregnancy hypertension.