Association between Maternal Serum Uric Acid Levels with Severity and Neonatal Outcome in Preeclampsia / Eclampsia

Aims: The objective of the study is to determine the association between maternal serum uric acid levels with the severity and neonatal outcome in preeclampsia/eclampsia.

Study Design: This study was a cross-sectional study with a descriptive-analytic design.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou General Central Hospital and affiliated hospitals in Manado, between October 2020 and February 2021.

Methodology: We included 33 normotensive pregnant women and 33 mothers diagnosed with either severe preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome, or eclampsia who delivered at Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou General Central Hospital and affiliated hospitals in Manado. The serum uric acid of all subjects was examined using the uricase method before delivery.

Results: The mean serum uric acid level in normotensive pregnancy was 4.8 (± 0.73) mg/dL and the median value in preeclampsia / eclampsia was 9.2 (5.2-15.1) mg/dL. One-way Anova test showed a significant association between maternal serum uric acid levels with the severity of preeclampsia/eclampsia with a value of P < .001 and the degree of hypertension with a value of P < .001. At the same time, the Pearson correlation test showed a strong correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure with uric acid levels with rho values 0.620 (P < .001) and 0.517 (P = .002), respectively. We found no significant association between maternal serum uric acid levels and the onset of preeclampsia (P-value = .935); with gestational age at delivery (P-value = 0.431); and with the first minute APGAR score (P-value = 0.209).

Conclusion: There was a significant association between maternal serum uric acid levels and the severity of preeclampsia/ eclampsia. There was no association between maternal serum uric acid levels and neonatal outcome. We recommend investigation of maternal uric acid levels could be used to help determine the prognosis in patients with preeclampsia/eclampsia.