Evaluation of Safety and Efficay of Nifedipine in Pregnancy Induced Hypertension:A Prospective Observational Study

Introduction: Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) is a pregnancy specific, multisystem disorder characterized by development of edema, hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. The group of diseases includes preeclampsia and eclampsia, which are peculiar to pregnancy. Antihypertensive treatment should be commenced in all women with a systolic blood pressure ≥170 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure ≥110 mm Hg because of the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage and eclampsia.

Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of nifedipine in gestational hypertension.

Methodology: A Prospective observational study was conducted in outpatient and inpatient department of obstetrics and gynaecology of Government hospital for a period of one year (November 2017-November 2018). Inclusion criterion of the study was to collect and analyse the case sheets of patients having Gestational hypertension and Gestational age of >20 weeks admitted in the hospital and visited outpatient department during one year duration. Exclusion criterion of this study was patients having chronic hypertension, Gestational age of <20 weeks, Patients who were diagnosed with other causes of convulsions in pregnancy like cerebral malaria and epilepsy and Patients not willing to participate in the study.

Results and Discussion: In the present study, 70(68.62%) patients were treated with nifedipine and rest 32(31.37%) patients were treated with other antihypertensive. Nifedipine showed significantly better clinical outcomes in comparison to other anti hypertensive. Nifedipine safety profile in terms of adverse effects was significantly better than other anti hypertensive. IUGR had greater relative risk compared to other fetal outcomes while relative risk was significantly less for maternal outcomes in patients treated with nifedipine.

Conclusion: Our study results implicated the efficacy of nifedipine in pregnancy induced hypertension in terms of clinical outcomes, type of delivery, maternal outcomes and fetal outcomes and incidence of adverse effects.