Predictive value of plasma haematocrit level in early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia.

Golboni, F.; Heydarpour, S.; Taghizadeh, Z.; Kazemnezhad, A.

While pre-eclampsia is the most common complication of pregnancy, a definitive screening test for early diagnosis is still elusive. In this study, haematocrit value was assessed as a screening test for pre-eclampsia in 660 women at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy attending a hospital in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Mean haematocrit values were significantly higher in pre-eclamptic than non-pre-eclamptic women: 37.7% (SD 2.0%) and 35.9% (SD 1.7%) respectively. The receiver operating characteristics curve showed that the most appropriate cut-off point for the haematocrit test in this sample of women was 38%; at this value the sensitivity was 58.6% and specificity was 88.9%; positive and negative predictive values were 33.7% and 95.7% respectively The haematocrit, done as a routine screening test for anaemia at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy, may also be useful as a screening test for early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia.

IRAN; PREECLAMPSIA diagnosis; PREGNANCY complications; ANEMIA; CHI-squared test; HEMATOCRIT; INTERVIEWING; PREDICTIVE tests; HUMAN research subjects; RECEIVER operating characteristic curves; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PREGNANCY; DIAGNOSIS

Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 2011, Vol 17, Issue 10, p744

1020-3397

Academic Journal

10.26719/2011.17.10.744