A study of prevalence and association of fundus changes in pregnancy induced hypertension

Abstract

Aims: To study the association of retinal changes in pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and its parameters like age, parity, and severity of the disease. Subjects and Methods: This was a tertiary hospital based cross-sectional study. All the patients (117) admitted with diagnosis of PIH were included in this study. Age, gravida, gestation period, blood pressure, and severity were noted from the case records. After taking history for any eye symptoms, fundus examination was done after dilating the pupils with indirect ophthalmoscope in the ward itself to note the various fundus changes. Results: Majority of the patients belonged to the age group 31-40 yrs (46.15%). Majority of the patients were primigravidas (47.86%). (20.51%) were second gravidas and (18.80%) and (12.82%) were third gravida and multigravida respectively. Fundus changes of PIH were present in 45(38.46%) patients. Most of the patients had mild eclampsia (53.85%) It was found that there was a statistically significant association of parity (P=0.002) and severity of PIH (P=0.00). But the age of the patient was not significant statistically (P=0.09) in our study. Conclusion: Fundus examination in cases of PIH is of paramount importance in monitoring and managing cases as it co-relates with the severity.