The Incidence of Thrombocytopenia Among 600 Pregnant Ladies in Sulaimani-Iraq

Abstract

Background 
 Thrombocytopenia in pregnancy is quite common; it’s the second most common hematological abnormality, after anemia, during pregnancy. Thrombocytopenia results from a wide range of conditions, several of them being pregnancy related. While some of these are not associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, others are associated with substantial maternal and /or neonatal morbidity and mortality.
 Objective
 To determine the incidence and various underlying causes of thrombocytopenia in pregnant women in Sulaimani-Iraq.
 Methods
 In this study a total of 600 pregnant women at different gestational ages, and 150 non- pregnant apparently healthy women, as control, were included. They were randomly selected from different primary health care centers and outpatient clinics of Maternity Teaching Hospital in Sulaimani city. Full history, physical examination and laboratory investigations were performed.
 Results
 The incidence of thrombocytopenia in the pregnant group was 7.7 % with gestational thrombocytopenia accounting for 76.1% of cases, followed by pregnancy induced hypertensive disorders in 19.6% of cases. The platelets count in pregnant women included in the study ranged from 60-450 x 109 /L with a mean of (250.2 x 109 /L ± 68.39), a value that is significantly lower than the value in control group with a range of platelets from 162-392 x 109 /L, and a mean of (285 x 109 /L ± 48.2) (P value= 0.001). 
 Conclusion
 Gestational thrombocytopenia is the commonest cause (76.1% of cases) for thrombocytopenia occurring later in pregnancy in this study, and a platelets count ≥ 121 x 109/L detected late in pregnancy does not require sophisticated investigations and should be regarded as safe threshold.