To evaluate left ventricular function and measure N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels in women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) in comparison to normotensive women and correlate these with maternal and neonatal outcomes. This was a prospective observational case-control study from 2018 to 2020 in an Indian tertiary care hospital and included antenatal women beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy with 160 women with HDP as cases and 160 normotensive women as controls. Echocardiography was performed to assess left ventricular structure and function. Quantitative analysis of NT-proBNP levels was performed based on fluorescence immunochromatography. Women with HDP were observed to have a significant difference in the value of left ventricular structure and function (P < 0.001). Mild systolic dysfunction was found in 13 (8.1%) women in the HDP group 8 (20%) women with severe pre-eclampsia and 5 (33.3%) women with eclampsia). Significantly lower values of left ventricular ejection fraction and higher values of NT-proBNP were recorded in women with HDP who developed maternal complications and had adverse neonatal outcomes (P < 0.001). Echocardiography and NT-proBNP levels have been shown to have a significant role in women with severe forms of HDP to detect early signs of cardiac dysfunction.
Keywords: NT-proBNP; cardiac dysfunction; echocardiography; hypertensive disorders; left ventricular function; maternal outcome; pre-eclampsia; pregnancy.
© 2022 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.