Assessment of Thyroid Function Among Hypertensive Pregnant Women: A Cross Sectional Study from South Eastern Nigeria

Author(s): Maduka Ignatius C, Dioka CE, Ekuma Okereke O and Ogbu ISI

Background: Gestational hypertension (GH) is defined by an elevated blood pressure (BP) at or beyond 20 weeks gestation in the absence of proteinuria in previously known normotensive women. It is the most frequent cause of hypertensive complications during pregnancy ranging from 10% to 17% of all pregnancies. These complications include pre-eclampsia, eclampsia and death if not managed properly. Despite being a major contributor of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality, the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of GH have not been fully elucidated. This study was designed to evaluate thyroid function in hypertensive pregnant women.

Materials and method: A total of 300 subjects aged between 22 and 40 years were recruited for this study. These comprised 150 hypertensive and 150 age matched normotensive individuals as controls. Serum concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free tri-iodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assay procedure.

Result: The mean value of TSH was significantly higher in hypertensive subjects when compared with the control (P<0.05). The mean level of FT3 was significantly decreased in hypertensive subjects when compared with the control subjects (P<0.05). There was no significant difference when the serum level of FT4 was compared between hypertensive and normotensive pregnant women (P>0.05). Furthermore, the serum level of TSH correlated significantly (P<0.05) with both SBP (R=0.925, P=0.000) and DBP (R=1.191, P=0.000). Also, the serum level of TSH negatively correlated with FT3 (R= -0.595, P=0.000) and FT4 (R= -0.365, P=0.000) respectively.

Conclusion: Therefore, we observed that gestational hypertension is associated with decrease activity of thyroid hormones as indicated by the significantly lower FT3

© 2016-2024, Copyrights Fortune Journals. All Rights Reserved