title: Prognostic significance of serum uric acid in women with gestational hypertension.
abstract: Aim of our study was to ascertain, prospectively, whether serum uric acid is a suitable predictor of preeclampsia and/or the delivery of small-for-gestational-age infants in women with gestational hypertension. We screened 206 primiparas, with a singleton pregnancy, referred for recent onset of hypertension. At presentation, we measured serum uric acid, creatinine, blood glucose, hemoglobin and platelet level, and 24-hour proteinuria, as well as office and 24-hour blood pressures. We followed the women until 1 month after delivery and recorded pregnancy outcome. After logistic regression analysis, uric acid resulted a significant predictor of preeclampsia, with an unadjusted odds ratio of 9.1 (95% CI: 4.8 to 17.4; P<0.001); after adjustment for age, gestation week, hemoglobin and platelet levels, serum creatinine, office and 24-hour average systolic and diastolic blood pressures, it was 7.1 (95% CI: 3.2 to 15.7; P<0.001). Regarding the association between maternal serum uric acid and the chance of giving birth to a small-for-gestational-age infant, the unadjusted odds ratio was 1.7 (95% CI: 1.4 to 2.2; P<0.001), and it was 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1 to 2.4; P=0.02) after adjustment. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that serum uric acid, at a 309-μmol/L cutoff, predicted the development of preeclampsia (area under the curve: 0.955), with 87.7% sensitivity and 93.3% specificity, and the delivery of small-for-gestational-age infants (area under the curve: 0.784) with 83.7% sensitivity and 71.7% specificity. In conclusion, the results of our study show that serum uric acid is a reliable predictor of preeclampsia in women referred for gestational hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, San Giovanni Battista Hospital, Foligno, Italy. assidial@tin.it
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellomo
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Venanzi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saronio
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verdura
authors.forename: Pier Luca
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Narducci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014527:Uric Acid