Effect of Pregnancy on Hematological Profile of Female Subjects from a Private Hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Pregnancy is characterized by important variations in virtually every organ system to accommodate the growing and developing fetoplacental entity. Hence, the objective of this study is to assess the effect of pregnancy on hematological profile of female subjects attending a private hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria using eighty female volunteered individuals comprising sixty pregnant subjects and twenty nonpregnant subjects. The pregnant group was further categorized into three trimesters, each consisting of twenty participants. Results were presented as Mean ± SD and analyzed using GraphPad Prism 5 software (GraphPad Software Inc.), and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Overall, the mean values of lymphocytes, red blood cells, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelets were decreased in the pregnant cohort when compared to the nonpregnant cohort, whereas an incremental rise in white blood cell, and granulocytes were observed in the pregnant cohort when compared to the nonpregnant cohort. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) in the mean hematocrit and hemoglobin values was observed when comparing the first-trimester participants with the control participants, although white blood cells, granulocytes, lymphocytes, red blood cells, and platelets were not different (p > 0.05). The average values for white blood cells, granulocytes, red blood cells, hematocrit, and hemoglobin between second-trimester individuals and those of nonpregnant individuals exhibited a significant variance (p < 0.05), while the average lymphocyte and platelet counts showed no significance (p > 0.05). the mean white blood cells, granulocytes, lymphocytes, red blood cells, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelet counts for the third-trimester subjects were significantly different (p < 0.05) when compared to the control subjects. The study outcome suggests that pregnancy affects hematological indices and may be a risk predictor for pregnancy-associated complications.