A cross-sectional study on the incidence of retinal changes and its correlation with variables like blood pressure, liver function tests, kidney function tests, proteinuria, and pedal edema in patients of pregnancy-induced hypertension in a rural setting

Purpose: Pregnancy-induced hypertension is a multisystem disorder that occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy usually in primigravidas and is characterised by proteinuria, pedal edema, hypertension, and abnormal liver and kidney function tests. Since there exists a close relationship between retinal, cerebral, and renal vessels, fundoscopy gives the opportunity of observing the changes in the vascular tree. Methods: We conducted a study on 203 pregnant females over a period of 1.5 years in the rural population of North India. We recorded the baseline data from the patient files, including the biochemical investigations, and conducted a fundoscopic examination of all patients included in the study, and correlation of various variables was established. Results: Out of 203 patients (403 eyes), 60% were primigravidas of mean age 25.71 ± 4.46 years with the mean duration of pregnancy being 36 weeks. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure were160 and 101 mmHg, respectively. There was no significant correlation was seen of proteinuria with eclampsia and the fundus findings. But there was a significant correlation between proteinuria and pedal edema and between the fundus findings and deranged LFT and KFT values. Relationship between the variables was calculated by using Chi-square and Fisher's exact test. A P value < 0.05 was taken as significant. Conclusion: Hypertension in pregnancy is the major concern of public health issue worldwide. With proper understanding of the correlating factors such as fundus changes which are directly correlated with whole bo dy vascular changes, which might affect the fetal growth, we can easily predict the outcome and can take appropriate actions as early as possible.