Regional differences in clinical characteristics and fetal and maternal outcomes of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy in China: a retrospective study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDPs) are the leading causes of maternal and perinatal death worldwide, and appropriate prenatal care is beneficial toward improve pregnancy outcomes in populations at high risk of preeclampsia. OBJECTIVE: To describe variations in regional manifestations and outcomes of HDPs among the Chinese population to aid in the development of region-specific perinatal management guidelines. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. The clinical data of patients with HDP in 3 different regions were collected to explore the characteristics of HDP patients in different regions of China. RESULTS: In Peking University First Hospital, a regional rescue center for prenatal care and delivery, the proportion of patients with high-risk factors for PE was considerably high; 37.8% were of advanced maternal age, and 14.7% were obese. Among the patients, at this hospital, the proportion of comorbidities (e.g., chronic hypertension) in HDP patients was higher than that in the other 2 specialized maternal and child health care hospitals. CONCLUSION: Targeted prenatal care procedures should be established based on regional characteristics to improve the quality of perinatal health care and reduce the incidence of HDP. [Figure see text].