Perinatal morbidity and mortality in pregnancy hypertensive disorders: prognostic value of the clinical and laboratory findings.

In 521 pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders (PHD) and in 200 control cases, we studied the incidence of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), depression in the newborns, general morbidity of live newborns requiring admission and perinatal mortality. We also analyzed the relationship between these conditions and the type and severity of hypertension, gestational age, presence of symptoms of the classic EPH triad and of abnormal uric acid values, hemoconcentration, and low urinary estriol values. Perinatal mortality (especially antepartum) was significantly increased in severe pre-eclampsia, chronic hypertension and chronic hypertension with superimposed pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH); in all the cases with PHD it was three times higher than that of the control group (59% versus 20% and five times higher than the global perinatal mortality of the 25,763 deliveries attended during the same period (12% General morbidity reached 44% in severe pre-eclampsia and 75% in antepartum eclampsia. But the preterminal deliveries were also more frequent in PHD, especially in severe pre-eclampsia-eclampsia. Nevertheless, the perinatal morbidity and mortality in general increased when proteinuria and edema plus proteinuria were associated with hypertension, and the incidence was significantly higher when proteinuria surpassed 100 mg/dl. Morbimortality also increased in the presence of hemoconcentration, hyperuricemia, and low estrioluria.