Background Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are an important topic of concern, specifically in rural and remote areas of India where there is a lack of awareness and it is difficult to maintain proper follow-up of pregnant females to screen them for complications developed during pregnancy.
Gestational hypertension and
pre-eclampsia result in the abruption of the placenta,
hemolysis, elevated liver
enzymes, low platelet count syndrome,
eclampsia, and
disseminated intravascular coagulation, which can be a serious threat to the health of the mother and the fetus. Therefore, it is important to identify
biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting the complications of pre-
eclampsia that may aid the obstetric high-dependency units based in rural areas to tackle this important health hazard during pregnancy. Methodology A total of 180 singleton pregnant women of more than 34 weeks of gestational age were enrolled in this study. All women were divided into three groups (control group, severe
pre-eclampsia, and non-severe
pre-eclampsia) based on the severity of blood pressure and the presence of
proteinuria (≥+1 by the dipstick method). Salivary and serum
uric acid levels were measured through morning samples, and all patients were monitored for the development of complications and outcomes. Salivary
uric acid and serum
uric acid levels were correlated with each other and with maternal complications of
pre-eclampsia. Results Mean salivary
uric acid (mg/dL) in severe
pre-eclampsia was (6.72 ± 0.49) significantly higher compared to non-severe
pre-eclampsia (4.75 ± 0.94) and control (3.13 ± 0.43). Mean serum
uric acid (mg/dL) in severe
pre-eclampsia was (8.13 ± 0.87) significantly higher compared to non-severe
pre-eclampsia (6.23 ± 0.76) and control (3.85 ± 0.46).The lowest best cut-off value of maternal salivary
uric acid was 5.06 mg/dL, above which one can predict maternal complications with a diagnostic accuracy of 78.33%. Conclusions Salivary
uric acid and serum
uric acid levels are significantly raised in cases of
pre-eclampsia in comparison to normal pregnancy. Salivary
uric acid and serum
uric acid are correlated significantly indicating that salivary
uric acid can function as a cost-effective, novel marker to provide an idea about serum
uric acid levels. The prognostic accuracy of salivary
uric acid was good in predicting maternal complications among cases of
pre-eclampsia (severe and non-servere) and early-onset maternal complications. Therefore, it may be utilized as a helpful marker to identify high-risk patients.