Sideropaenic anaemia: Impact on perinatal outcome at tertiary care hospital.

Objective: To determine association between sideropaenic anaemia among women and adverse perinatal outcome. Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted at Civil Hospital a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, from February to August 2011, and comprised pregnant women. The participants were divided into two equal groups: those who had sideropaenic anaemia were in Group A, and those without it were in Group B. Data was collected by random choice (lottery) method. SPSS 13 was used for data analysis. Results: Of the 234 women, there were 117(50%) in each group. Besides, there were 130(55.5%) women aged 26-30 years, 62(26.5%) 21-25 years and 42(18%) 31-35 years. There were 78(66.7%) cases of preterm births in Group A compared to 23(19.7%) in Group B. Low birth weight was witnessed in 43(36.8%) cases in Group A and in 20(17.1%) cases in Group B. There were 8(6.8%) perinatal mortalities in Group A and 2(1.7%) in Group B. In Group A, 38(32.5%) cases showed Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration score <5 at 1 minute compared to 16(13.7%) cases in the other group. Similarly, the score <7 at 5 minutes was recorded in 25(21.4%) deliveries in Group A and 12(10.3%) in Group B. Conclusion: Sideropaenic anaemia was found to be an important risk factor for adverse perinatal outcome.