More and more pregnant women are reportedly facing kidney injury after being hospitalised, especially those with diabetes, says a recent study.

Also, women with pregnancy-related acute kidney injury were much more likely to die while in the hospital than those without kidney injury. The findings will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2019 at the Walter E Washington Convention Centre in Washington, DC. Kidney injury during pregnancy is associated with significant maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality. To study the issue, Silvi Shah, MD (University of Cincinnati), and her colleagues analysed records from the 2006-2015 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a US database containing information on more than 7 million hospital stays each year.

The researchers identified 42,190,790 hospitalisations during pregnancy, and the overall rate of hospitalisations involving acute kidney injury was 0.08 per cent. The rate increased from 0.04 per cent in 2006 to 0.12 per cent in 2015. Women with pregnancy-related acute kidney injury were older than those who did not develop acute kidney injury. Pregnancy-related acute kidney injury occurred at a higher rate in black women than white women, and in women with diabetes than in those without diabetes.

The rate of pregnancy-related hospitalisation involving acute kidney injury in diabetic women increased from 0.36 per cent in 2006 to 1.10 per cent in 2015. Higher rates were observed in southern and midwest geographical regions than in the northeast region, and in urban teaching hospitals than in urban non-teaching hospitals and rural hospitals. Women with pregnancy-related acute kidney injury were much more likely to die while in the hospital than those without kidney injury (3.98 per cent vs 0.01 per cent). "The findings of our study may necessitate a change in national policies regarding obstetric care of women and emphasize the need for kidney health monitoring for women hospitalised during pregnancy and during their outpatient prenatal visits," said Dr Shah.