Abstract

Background: Preeclampsia is associated with higher prevalence of abnormal global left ventricular function. So, present study was designed to compare these changes in normal and preeclamptic pregnancies using echocardiography.

Methods: In present study, 25 patients with pre-eclampsia with singleton pregnancy between 20-30 years (study group) were compared with 25 age matched healthy pregnant women (control group). They were non-invasively analyzed for cardiovascular hemodynamics using echocardiography. The data was analyzed using student’s t- test. P value <0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: Mean stroke volume in pre-eclampsia group was 72.4±5.1 ml v/s 67.7±5.6 ml in control group and the difference was statistically significant. Mean Cardiac output in preeclampsia group was64.2±3.4 lit/min v/s 5.69±0.47 lit/min in control group which is statistically significant. Mean Systemic vascular resistance (dyne.sec cm-5) in pre-eclampsia group was 1468.22±5.7 v/s 957.7±131 in control group which is statistically significant. Mean Ejection fraction (%) in pre-eclampsia group was 68.31±5.1 v/s 66.54±4.7 in control group which is statistically significant.

Conclusions: Doppler echocardiography provides an excellent non-invasive method for evaluation of hemodynamic changes during pregnancy. Therefore if it is introduced into antenatal protocol, could help to identify subset of pre-eclamptic women who are at high risk to developing complications and thereby can do early intervention. Key words: Echocardiography, Hemodynamics, Hypertension, Pregnancy.