Influence of pre-eclampsia on fetal growth.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the effect of pre-eclampsia on fetal growth in a cohort of pregnant women delivering singleton infants.


METHODS
Analyses were restricted to 155 women with pre-eclampsia and 5570 normotensive women. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) after adjusting for confounders. We estimated ORs for very low birth weight (VLBW; < 1500 g), low birth weight (LBW; < 2500 g), and small for gestational age (SGA; weight < or = 10th centile by each gestational age, race, sex and parity strata) in relation to maternal pre-eclampsia status.


RESULTS
After adjusting for maternal age, race, smoking, Medicaid status and gestational age, the OR for VLBW was 30.7 (95% CI 7.0-134.9). Pre-eclampsia was associated with a 3.8-fold increased risk of LBW (95% CI 1.9-7.5). Women with pre-eclampsia were 3.6 times more likely to deliver an SGA newborn as compared with normotensive women (95% CI 2.3-5.7). Advanced maternal age, African-American race, parity or smoking status did not modify the associations of pre-eclampsia with LBW and SGA.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results are consistent with other reports that have documented a strong relationship between pre-eclampsia and restricted fetal growth. Further, our results expand the literature by documenting a particularly strong association between pre-eclampsia and VLBW. However, our findings regarding the relationship between pre-eclampsia and fetal growth may be confounded by unmeasured factors including maternal weight prior to pregnancy and pregnancy weight gain.
Xiao
R
R
Center for Perinatal Studies, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, Washington 98122, USA.
Sorensen
T K
TK
Williams
M A
MA
Luthy
D A
DA
D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D005320:Fetal Macrosomia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008423:Maternal Age; D008499:Medical Records; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010298:Parity; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D001741:Black or African American