Detecting Preeclampsia Severity Using Maternal-Obstetrical Characteristics and Complete Blood Cell Counts

Area of Science:

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Hematology
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious pregnancy complication requiring accurate severity assessment.
• Current diagnostic tools may need enhancement for timely and precise detection of PE severity.
• Maternal-obstetrical characteristics (MOCs) and complete blood cell counts (CBCs) offer potential biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of combining MOCs and CBCs with red blood cell (RBC) indices for detecting preeclampsia severity.
• To establish an alternative diagnostic tool for immediate pre-delivery assessment of PE severity.
• To differentiate severe PE (SPE) from non-hypertensive, gestational hypertension (GH), and PE groups.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of singleton pregnancies delivered after 24 weeks gestation.
• Categorization into non-hypertensive (NH), GH, PE, and SPE groups.
• Multivariate logistic regression and ROC curve analysis using MOCs, CBCs, and RBC indices.

Main Results:

• A combination of maternal age, weight, gestational age, platelet count, and specific RBC indices (Srivastava, Siradah) differentiated SPE from NH with an AUC of 0.834.
• Differentiation of SPE from GH involved maternal age, BMI, gestational age, MCV, and platelet count (AUC, 0.777).
• Distinguishing SPE from PE utilized maternal age, MCHC, and Siradah indices (AUC, 0.745).

Conclusions:

• The combined use of MOCs and CBCs with RBC indices demonstrates satisfactory performance in detecting PE severity before delivery.
• This approach offers a viable alternative for the immediate assessment of preeclampsia severity.
• The identified variables provide a basis for a novel, non-invasive diagnostic tool for PE.