Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) as a Risk Factor of Severe Preeclampsia

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a very common medical complication of pregnancy. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of UTI in preeclamptic pregnancies and its association with severity of this disease.

METHODS: This cohort study was performed on 71 women with mild preeclampsia (PE), 70 women with severe PE, and 98 healthy pregnant women from October 2012 to April 2014 in the west of Iran. Mean diastolic pressure and level of proteinuria were used as indicators of disease severity. The main criteria for diagnosis of UTI was microbial count of higher than 104 cfu/ml.

RESULTS: The prevalence of the UTI in severe PE patients was significantly higher than mild PE patients and non-hypertensive pregnants. 12 out of 70 women with severe PE (17.1%) and 7 out of 98 controls (7.1%) had UTI (P<0.05), also 8 out of 71 women with mild PE (11.3%) had UTI (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our data shows a significant increase in UTI in severe PE pregnancy. Thus, we can consider UTI as one of the risk factors for developing severe PE; so by screening UTI in the first visit of the pregnant women and repeating it at the second and third trimester of pregnancy we could decrease adverse effects of UTI such as severe PE in pregnant women.