Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Physiology

Introduction: The hypertensive disorders of pregnancy cover a spectrum of conditions; of which pre-eclampsia poses the greatest potential risk and remains one of the most common causes of maternal death. Hyperuricemia due to oxidative stress is known to be associated with deleterious effects on endothelial dysfunction, oxidative metabolism, platelet adhesiveness and aggregation. Objective: The present study was designed not only to assess and compare serum uric acid in pregnant women with hypertension during pregnancy and normal pregnant women, but also to determine the possible diagnostic efficiency of uric acid as a predictive marker of severity of hypertension during pregnancy. Methods: This prospective observational case-control study was conducted at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bani-Suef University, on 100 pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy who had attended the antenatal clinic. Patient were classified into two groups, 50 patients each, according to ABP: group I included with normal blood pressure and group II with hypertension during pregnancy, which further subdivided according to severity of hypertension to three subgroups: IIa (pregnancy induced hypertension), IIb (mild pre-eclampsia) and IIc (severe pre-eclampsia). Blood samples were obtained on admission before initiation of any medical therapy. Serum uric acid and high sensitive C- reactive protein (Hs-CRP) and IL-1Ý levels, in addition to liver and renal function tests all were analyzed and the results were compared among the study groups

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