Hypercoagulability in the Context of Pre-Eclampsia: Case-Control Study at the Laquintinie Douala Hospital (Cameroon)

Introduction: Preeclampsia is one of the major causes of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in the world. The complexity of its etio-pathogenesis involves, among other things, hypercoagulability, which alone accounts for about 15% of his deaths. Our objective was to study the parameters of coagulation (prothrombin level, activated cephalin time) in pregnant women with preeclampsia and non-preeclampsia at Laquintinie Hospital in Douala. Methodology: We carried out an analytical cross-sectional case-control study from November 01st, 2018 to May 31st, 2019, in the gynecology and obstetrics department of Laquintinie Hospital in Douala. We included preeclampsia and non-preeclampsia pregnant women with a gestational age greater than or equal to 20 weeks amenorrhea. The variables of interest were age, pregnancy, parity, gestational age, marital status and body mass index, prothrombin level (PL) and activated cephalin time (ACT). Hypercoagulability was defined by the presence of at least one of the following abnormalities: PL > 100%, ACT < 25 seconds. Statistical tests were considered significant for a p-value < 0.05. Results: We recruited 150 pregnant women including 50 preeclampsia matched with 100 non-preeclampsia. The majority age group in both groups was 25 - 30 years (32% versus 37%). We found a high PL in 58% of preeclampsia versus 22% of non-preeclampsia patients (p = <0.001), a low PL in 8% of preeclampsia versus 0% in non-preeclampsia patients (p = 0.004). The ACT was prolonged in 12% of the preeclampsia versus 0% in the non-preeclampsia patients (p = <0.001). Pregnant women with preeclampsia were 4.89 times more likely to develop hypercoagulability than pregnant women without preeclampsia (OR 4.89;CI 2.34 - 10.20;p = <0.001). In linear regression, preeclampsia was significantly associated with PL (correlation coefficient 0.07;p = 0.008). We did not find risk factors associated with hypercoagulability in preeclampsia. Conclusion: Our study confirms the existence of hypercoagulability associated with preeclampsia, in particular in relation to an increase in the level of prothrombin.