Association of Maternal Periodontal Disease and Risk of Pre Eclampsia

INTRODUCTION: Hypertensive disorder complicates 5 to 10% of all pregnancies and together they form one member of the deadly triad along with haemorrhage and infection that contributes greatly to maternal mortality and morbidity rate. Pre eclampsia is a pregnancy specific syndrome characterized by new onset hypertension, Proteinuria usually after 20 weeks gestation. It is classified into severe and non severe types and in its extreme may lead to liver and renal failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation, seizures. Pre eclampsia and eclampsia are estimated to be responsible for approximately 14% of maternal deaths per year. Despite its impact on maternal and child health, efforts to predict and prevent the disease have been disappointing. Numerous strategies have been shown to have little benefits. Because our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease is incomplete, these preventive strategies were proposed based on pathogenetic hypothesis that did not withstand the test of time. An increasing number of risk factors for pre eclampsia are associated with upregulation of systemic inflammation. Infection may be a risk factor capable of stimulating the cascade of inflammatory events associated with pre eclampsia. In particular the recognition of pre eclampsia as inflammatory disease has helped researchers focus again on the potential involvement of infections in the causation of pre eclampsia. AIM OF STUDY: 1) To identify the association between maternal periodontitis, maternal systemic inflammation and preeclampsia. 2) To investigate whether C - reactive protein is the possible mediator of the association between periodontitis and pre eclampsia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is a prospective cohort study conducted from May 2009 – October 2010 among antenatal primi booked at Institute of social obstetrics and Govt. Kasturba Gandhi Hospital. Over this period, eligible healthy women with a singleton pregnancy were enrolled at <20 weeks gestation and followed till delivery for the development of pre ...