Abstract:

Background: Physiological changes of pregnancy appear to affect all body systems. Pregnant-related conditions like hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and Diabetes mellitus are reported to alter the physiological changes of pregnancy. In almost all pregnant-related conditions, 16% of maternal deaths are attributed to hypertensive disorders. In Tanzania, the incidence of pre-eclampsia at Bugando Medical Centre was reported to be 1.4% with a fatality rate of 7.89 %. Eyes involvement though quite common, is rarely investigated however visible retinal vascular changes occur in 30-100 percent of preeclamptic patients and visual symptoms are reported in 25-50 percent.

Method: This is a cross-sectional study for a period of 6 months from June 2023 to November 2023 of all pregnant women attending Bugando Medical Centre with gestation age of 28 weeks and above. The Fundoscopy examination was performed and results were recorded in a structured questionnaire.

Results: A total of 480 participants were included in this study. The mean age of study participants was 28 ± 5 years. Macula exudates were the most common fundoscopic changes that occurred in 6/120 (5%) of women with preeclampsia/eclampsia followed by Papilledema 4 patients (3.33%), arteriolar narrowing in 2 (1.6%) patients, macula edema, not clear cornea and vitreous media occurred only in 1 patient. We found significant association between the severity of preeclampsia and gestational age with fundoscopic changes. We found an insignificant association between parity, gravidity and maternal age with fundoscopic changes (p-value>0.05).

Conclusions: Incorporation of fundoscopic examination in women with preeclampsia through regular examination of the eyes will provide a simple tool that can access the degree of structural ophthalmic patterns among pregnant women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy compared to biochemistry markers which are expensive and sometimes are not available in lower facilities.