Frequency and factors leading to recurrent pre-eclampsia

Objective: to determine the frequency and factors leading to recurrent preeclampsia. methods: the cross-sectional study was conducted at the jinnah post graduate medical centre,karachi,from january 2011 to february 2012,and comprised parous subjects <40 years of age with history of preeclampsia in previous pregnancy/pregnancies with singleton pregnancy and gestational age of >20 weeks. gestational age was determined by early scan with preeclampsia in index pregnancy. data was collected through a specialised questionnaire and analysed using spss 16. results: of the 479 patients seen with preeclampsia,121(25.26%) were of recurrent preeclampsia. the mean age of such patients was 29.7±4.9 years (range: 20-39 years). further,84(69.42%) patients were multipara and 40(33.05%) were grand multipara. mean body mass index was 29.97±6.2 (range: 18-54). besides,28(23.14%) patients had gestational diabetes; 7(5.78%) were known diabetics; 24(19.83%) had chronic hypertension; 2(1.7%) patients had chronic renal disease; and 1(0.8%) had connective tissue disorder. conclusion: being over-weight,having gestational diabetes and chronic hypertension were main risk factors leading to recurrent preeclampsia. © 2015,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.