SCREENING FOR PREGNANCY INDUCED HYPERTENSION IN PRIMARY CARE UNITS

Introduction: Pregnancy induced Hypertension is still a major cause of maternal and perinatal mortality. It’s a common complication during pregnancy and responsible for a large number of preterm births. Searching for ways to prevent more serious outcomes, a local protocol was established between Primary Care Units in Rio de Janeiro’s Planning Area 4.0 and high risk Maternities. Objective: To evaluate the utilization of a local protocol created to better of management of pregnancy induced Hypertension and to describe its effect over pregnancy outcome. Method: It was conducted an intervention study among pregnant women monitored in Primary Care Units from Planning Area 4.0’s territory, between July 2015 and December 2015, who had systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 and / or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 or weight gain over 1000g in a month, accompanied by edema or significant increase in blood pressure. Results and conclusions: 560 women were tested at least once for proteinuria presence. The average age among them was 25 years and 16% were teenagers. 18% tested positive for proteinuria during follow-up and were taken by ambulance to their reference maternity. Of these, 14% had only edema in lower extremities as symptom and 43% were subjected to C-section within 15 days after the test due fetal or maternal distress. So far, no perinatal deaths were observed. The performance of screening for proteinuria shows promise in reducing fetal and infant deaths by gestational hypertension.