title: Prevalence of hypertension during pregnancy in Portugal.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of maternal hypertensive disorders in Portugal and to assess their impact on obstetric outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A national survey on hypertension in pregnancy was conducted in Portuguese public maternity wards and included 6726 pregnancies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six percent of women presented with a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy or puerperium: 1.5% with chronic hypertension, 2.5% with gestational hypertension, 1.4% with preeclampsia, 0.2% with superimposed preeclampsia, 0.1% with eclampsia, and 0.1% with HELLP syndrome. Preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age infants and fetal death were significantly more frequent among women with preeclampsia/eclampsia and HELLP syndrome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Portugal, the prevalence of hypertensive disorders diagnosed during pregnancy seems to be lower than that reported in most countries, but these disorders have a significant effect on pregnancy outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Hospital Sao Joao-EPE, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Portugal. amargpf@gmail.com
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Póvoa
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Patrício
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cardoso
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence