Hypertension in Pregnancy, Early Online:1–9, 2010 Copyright © Informa UK Ltd. ISSN: 1064-1955 print / 1525-6065 online DOI: 10.3109/10641950903572258 LHIP 1064-1955 1525-6065 Hypertension in Pregnancy, Vol. 1, No. 1, May 2010: pp. 0–0 Hypertension in Pregnancy Assessment of Genetic Contributions to Risk of Preeclampsia in Ecuadorian Women Genetic Risk in Preeclamptic Ecuadorian Women López-Pulles et al. Ramiro López-Pulles, 1 Fabricio González-Andrade, 2 Mario Durán-Rodas, 3 José Ayala, 3 Richard Carrillo, 3 Luis René Buitrón, 3 Juan Chuga, 4 and Walter Moya 5 1 Biomedical Center, Universidad Central (Quito) and UniAndes (Ambato), Ecuador 2 Department of Medicine, Metropolitan Hospital, Quito, Ecuador 3 Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador 4 Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador 5 Obstetrical Pathology Department, Hospital Isidro Ayora, Quito, Ecuador Aim: To identify the immunogenetic factors that trigger the beginning of preeclampsia and eclampsia. Methods: A retrospective, case-control study of 142 pregnant women in Obstetrics and Gynecological Hospital Isidro Ayora in Quito, who are grouped into two different groups, diseased and healthy. The study analyzed ethnicity, age, gyneco- logical history, contraception, immunizations, blood type and Rh factor, and family his- tory of preeclampsia-eclampsia of each of the pregnant women; and gestational age, sex, weight, and blood type and Rh factor of the progeny. Results: Age, ethnicity, his- tory of pregnancy, abortions, contraception, and blood type and Rh factor were similar for both groups (p > 0.05). Gestational age and weight of the progeny was lower in cases compared with controls (p < 0.05). There was no statistical difference when com- paring the blood type and Rh factor of the two groups (p > 0.05). Male gender was pre- dominant in both groups for cases 69.01 and 87.32% for controls (p < 0.05). Conclusions: There was a higher predisposition for inherited cases (26%) versus con- trols (9.85%), p < 0.05, for the occurrence of preeclampsia. The frequency of the reces- sive gene for Mendelian inheritance model mother-fetus homozygous (aa/aa), in agreement with the Hardy-Weinberg Law, was 0.41 for the sample. Keywords Eclampsia, Etiology, Familial history, Genetic factors, Physiopathology, Preeclampsia. INTRODUCTION Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific multisystem disorder of unknown etiol- ogy, usually associated with raised blood pressure (BP) and proteinuria after the 20th week of gestation (1). This hypertensive disorder is present as a com- plication approximately in 5 to 7% of pregnancies (2). Around the world, high- pressure disorders during gestation are responsible for up to 50,000 deaths concerning the mother and up to 900,000 perinatal deaths annually (3). Both a rapid diagnosis and intervention are of great importance in lowering Address correspondence to Dr. Fabricio González-Andrade, Department of Medicine, Hospital Metropolitano, Av. Mariana de Jesús Oe8 y Occidental, Quito 170125, Ecuador. E-mail: fabriciogonzaleza@yahoo.es Hypertens Pregnancy Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 190.131.156.202 on 08/11/10 For personal use only.