COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PLATELET COUNT IN NORMAL PREGNANT WOMAN AND IN PREGNANCY-INDUCED HYPERTENSION

BACKGROUND Pregnancy-induced hypertension is one of the most common and potential life-threatening complications of pregnancy. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference in platelet count in normal pregnant woman and pregnancy-induced hypertension patient. MATERIALS AND METHODS It is a case control study. This study includes 100 cases in which there are two groups. First group has 50 normal pregnant women as control and second group has 50 cases with pregnancy-induced hypertension, in which the subgroup has 40 cases with mild pregnancy-induced hypertension and 10 cases with severe pregnancy-induced hypertension. Study was conducted in the Department of Physiology in collaboration with Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Kamala Raja Hospital (Gwalior). Patients were studied, and platelet count was done in all cases in third trimester of pregnancy from April 2005 to Oct. 2006. RESULTS In this study, there is an inverse relationship between the severity of PIH and platelet count. Mean platelet count was found to be less in patients with higher blood pressure. CONCLUSION Our study and result showed that assay of platelet can be considered as one of the prognostic tools in management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.