Ocular Fundus changes in pregnancy induced hypertension – A case series study

Jayashree MP, Niveditha RK*, NG Kuntoji, Vishalakshi Bhat, Shravan GM, Brijesh A Patil and Harika JVL

Back ground: Pregnancy Induced Hypertension is a challenging stigma in the field of obstetrics and one of major contributors to maternal and perinatal mortality. PIH is a hypertensive disorder in pregnancy that occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the absence of other causes of elevated blood pressure. 

Aims and objectives: 

· To determine the proportion of different groups of PIH patients i.e., gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia having retinal changes. 

· To study the correlation of retinal changes with severity. 

 Methods: It is a is a Prospective (hospital based) study done on 150 patients of PIH Age, gravida, gestation period, B.P. and proteinuria were noted. Ocular examination done using direct and indirect ophthalmoscope. The findings were noted and analysed using chi square test. 

Results: A total of 150 patients were examined. The mean age of patients was 24.34±4.01 years. The gestation period ranged from 28 to 40 weeks. 72(48%) were primigravida, 74(49.3%) were multigravida and 4 (2.7%) were grand multi gravida. Out of all patients, most of the patients had severe preeclampsia i.e., 71(47.3%), 34(22.6%) had mild preeclampsia, 32(21.3%) had eclampsia and 13 (8.7%) had gestational hypertension.

In our study, 32 patients (21.3%) had arteriolar attenuation which included generalised arteriolar attenuation in 12(37.5%) and focal arteriolar attenuation in 20 (62.5%) which is the most common retinal finding. Retinal detachment was seen in 1 patient. There was statistically significant positive association of retinal changes with blood pressure (p) and severity of PIH (p). 

Conclusion: Fundus examination in PIH is important in monitoring and managing cases as it correlates with severity as it indirectly implies severity of changes in placental micro-circulation that can help to predict the foetal outcome and ocular morbidity. 

Keywords:

Published on: Dec 13, 2018 Pages: 37-41

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/2455-1414.000054
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