JSWMC

Abstract:

Preeclampsia is an adverse pregnancy condition of hypertension and proteinuria that appears after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is associated with generalized vasoconstriction, abnormal blood clotting and fibrin deposition within placental microcirculation. D-dimer has been used as a diagnostic marker of production or degradation of fibrin in vivo. This cross-sectional comparative study aimed to evaluate plasma D-dimer level and its relationship with preeclampsia compared to the normal pregnant women. This study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College on 90 pregnant women – 45 were preeclamptic and 45 were normal pregnant women. The studied groups were matched for mean age (p = 0.292), residence area (p = 0.140), level of education (p = 0.321), occupation (p = 0.156), gestational age (p = 0.191), and number of gravida (p = 0.394). Means of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in preeclamptic patient’s group (p = <0.001) and mean values were above normal. The mean of plasma D-dimer level was found significantly higher (p = <0.001) in pre-eclamptic women (1.15±0.38 μg/ml) compared to the normal pregnant women (0.34±0.24 μg/ml) in this study. Elevated D-dimer level found more in preeclampsia group (95.6%) compared to the normal pregnancy group (26.7%) with an odd ratio of 59.12 (95% CI: 12.37 – 282.53, p = <0.001). The plasma D-dimer level positively correlates with the period of gestation (r = 0.448, p = <0.001), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.723, p = <0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.707, p = <0.001) and negatively correlate with total platelet count (r = -0.615, p = <0.001). Based on this study findings it can be concluded that Plasma D-dimer may be used as an important diagnostic tool in pregnancy.