Incidence and Predictors of Acute Kidney Injury Among Women With Severe Pre-eclampsia at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital

Background: The presence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in pre-eclampsia complicates treatment including; increasing length of hospital stay and a need to access services like dialysis which are largely expensive in resource-limited settings. We aimed to determine incidence and predictors of acute kidney injury among women with severe pre-eclampsia at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital in southwestern Uganda. MethodsWe carried out a hospital-based prospective cohort study from 16 November 2018 to 18 April 2019, among pregnant women with severe preeclampsia followed up in the hospital. We enrolled 70 mothers with severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia; we excluded patients with a history of chronic renal disease, chronic hypertension, and gestational hypertension.Data on socio-demographics, laboratory parameters, health system, obstetric and medical factors were collected. Baseline serum creatinine, complete blood count, and CD4 T-cell count were all done at admission (0-hour). Second serum creatinine was done at 48-hours to determine the presence of AKI. AKI was defined as a rise in serum creatinine of 0.3mg/dl or more from the baseline. The proportion of women diagnosed with acute kidney injury among the total number of women with severe pre-eclampsia was reported as incidence proportion. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to establish the association of acute kidney injury and severe pre-eclampsia.ResultsIncidence of acute kidney injury was high (41.4%) among women with severe pre-eclampsia. Antenatal care attendance was protective 0.36 (0.16, 0.80), p<0.013 at bivariate analysis but had no statistical significance at multivariate analysis. Eclampsia was an independent risk factor for acute kidney injury. (aRR 2.74 (1.06, 7.08), P<0. 037.ConclusionThe incidence of acute kidney injury in patients with preeclampsia is high. Eclampsia is an independent risk factor of acute kidney injury.