Abstract: In India, the prevalence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy was found to be 7.8% and incidence of preeclampsia was 5.4%
[1]. The exact cause of hypertension in pregnancy still remains unknown, even after years of extensive research and hence this disorder has come to be dubbed as the “disease of theories”. Epidemiologic data from many surveys and studies supports the fact that specific nutritional deficiencies may contribute to maternal and fetal morbidity
[2].
Among all, there exists an alteration in calcium and magnesium metabolism during pregnancy which could be a potential factor causing pre-eclampsia.
Materials and Methods: This was a prospective case control observational study done over a period of one year in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, New Delhi. A total of 60 patients with a singleton pregnancy in the third trimester between the age group of 18-35 years were enrolled in the study, out of which 30 who had a BP reading of ≥140/90 mmHg were classified as cases and 30 normal, normotensive pregnant patients were classified as controls. Comparison of levels of serum calcium and magnesium of both the groups was done.
Results: This study was undertaken to analyse the serum concentration of calcium and magnesium in women with gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia and compare these levels with normotensive pregnant women. We found that serum calcium and serum magnesium was significantly decreased amongst the cases when compared with the control group (p value <0.001).
Conclusion: Though calcium and magnesium deficiencies cannot be pin pointed as the sole factors in the etiology of pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), these findings do support the hypothesis that hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia could be possible modifiable factors in the causation of hypertension in pregnancy and their relationship cannot be denied.
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