Objectives To correlate the severity of the disease, maternal and perinatal outcome with Lactic Dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in serum in patients of preeclampsia and eclampsia. Methods A prospective comparative study was conducted in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the collaboration with department of Pathology, CSM Medical University, Lucknow. Out of 146 women studied, 39 were normal pregnant women, 35 were of mild preeclampsia, 36 of severe preeclampsia and 36 of eclampsia. The statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test (for proportional data) analysis of variance and sample ''t'' test (for parametric data). Results LDH levels were significantly elevated in women with preeclampsia and eclampsia (\0.001). Higher LDH levels had significant correlation with high blood pressure (P \ 0.10) as well as poor maternal and perinatal outcome. Conclusion High serum LDH levels correlate well with the severity of the disease and poor outcomes in patients of preeclampsia and eclampsia.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) remain one of the largest single causes of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, accounting for 16.1% of maternal deaths in developed countries. The aim of the study was to evaluate acute kidney injury (AKI) in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and to examine the correlation of serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) with acute kidney injury. This prospective case control study was carried out over a period of 1 year. After written, informed consent and ethical clearance, 149 cases of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were screened, and seven were lost to follow-up. Acute kidney injury was detected in 88 cases and acute renal failure in 30 cases of HDP. Thirty-one healthy pregnant nonhypertensive women were enrolled as controls. Quantitative measurement of serum NGAL levels was done by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay technique using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. As per the Kidney Diseases Improving Global Outcomes International guidelines acute kidney injury network (AKIN), 50 cases (42.37%) of AKI stage I, 38 (32.2%) cases of AKI stage II, and 30 (25.42%) cases of renal failure were detected. Serum NGAL had a positive association with increasing proteinuria. It also had a positive correlation with systolic blood pressure (r∼0.36), diastolic blood pressure (r∼0.37), and serum creatinine (r∼0.4). NGAL was found to be significantly correlated with creatinine in the cases with the value of the correlation coefficient being 0.4. This direct correlation might be a consequence of endothelial dysfunction on which hypertension and proteinuria probably depends.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of cervicovaginal prolactin levels for predicting preterm delivery in women with preterm labor. Materials and methods: The preterm labor group and normal pregnancy group consisted of 75 and 150 patients between 24 weeks and 36 weeks of gestation. The preterm group was further subdivided into two groups. Study group Ia: patients who came up with preterm labor and given tocolytic but had preterm delivery (n = 50). Study group Ib: patients who came up with preterm labor and given tocolytic and delivered full term (n = 25). A single cervicovaginal measurement was made in all the groups. Results: Cervicovaginal prolactin was highest in the study group Ia (11 ± 9.31 ng/mL) as compared to the study group Ib (4.61± 6.2 ng/mL) and control group (2.51 ± 5.1 ng/mL), and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.0311; p = 0.0000). The optimal cut-off value of prolactin was greater than 7 ng/mL in study group Ia with sensitivity level of 78%, at a specificity of 80% with positive and negative predictive values of 88.64% and 64.52%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 79% which indicates fair diagnostic accuracy of cervicovaginal prolactin in predicting preterm labor. Conclusion:Prolactin is a potential biochemical marker which can be used alone or complementary to other markers for predicting preterm labor.