Predictive Value of Plasma Hematocrit Level in Diagnosis of Pre-Eclampsia

Abstract

ABSTRACT:

Background: Preeclampsia is the condition of high blood pressure presented in expectant mothers after a gestational period of 20 weeks which can further extend post-delivery. A simple CBC with hematocrit is a common and cheap test routinely done during pregnancy, making in diagnosis of preeclampsia.

Objective: To estimate the Diagnostic accuracy along with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of hematocrit cut off of 38% keeping conventional diagnosis of preeclampsia as gold standard.

Material & Methods: My study was a cross-sectional validation study, conducted at Out-patient, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, Punjab, from 26 February 2025 to 10 June 2025. Our Sample Size was 367. Diagnostic accuracy including sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV of Hematocrit cut off suggestive of preeclampsia was calculated keeping Conventional diagnosis of preeclampsia as gold standard. Diagnostic accuracy including sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of Hematocrit cut off suggestive of preeclampsia was also be calculated after stratification with age groups, gestational age groups, residence (rural / urban) and parity groups (nullipara / multipara) keeping Conventional diagnosis of preeclampsia as gold standard.

Results: Diagnostic accuracy of Hematocrit cut off suggestive of preeclampsia was calculated keeping Conventional diagnosis of preeclampsia as gold standard and it comes out to be 85.07% (95% CI; 79.38% to 89.70%), 77.71% (95% CI; 70.61% to 83.79%), 82.21% (95% CI; 77.57% to 86.06%), 81.13% (95% CI; 75.37% to 85.80%) and 81.74% (95% CI; 77.40% to 85.56%) respectively.

Conclusion: Our study concluded that Hematocrit cut off “≥ 38%” is reasonably sensitive and specific to predict preeclampsia. Our results favor already available statistics. However, we recommend to use Hematocrit cut off “≥ 38%” in conjunction with other clinical and laboratory features.

Key words: Plasma Hematocrit, Pre-Eclampsia prediction