AIM: To investigate the changes of angiogenic factors and vascular endothelial function in patients with hypertensive retinopathy complicating pregnancy, and to analyze the relationship between the relevant factors and the degree of retinopathy.

METHODS: Totally 82 cases of patients with hypertensive retinopathy in pregnancy were selected as the research subjects. According to the Duker-Elder fundus staging criteria, they were divided into stage Ⅰ group(n=42), patients with stage Ⅱ group(n=25)and stage Ⅲ group(n=15), in addition, pregnancy hypertension patients without retinopathy were selected as control group. We compared the levels of angiogenic factors and vascular endothelial function among groups, and analyzed the relationship between the levels of relevant factors and retinopathy.

RESULTS:The levels of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), insulin like growth factors(IGF-1)and endothelin(ET)-1 in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group(P<0.01), and the levels were significantly increased with the increase of fundus staging, the difference was statistically significant. The level of NO in the observation group was significantly lower than that of the control group, with the increase of the fundus staging, the level of NO decreased significantly, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.01). Spearman correlation analysis showed that the degree of pregnancy induced hypertension retinopathy was positively correlated with VEGF, IGF-1 and ET-1, and negatively correlated with NO(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: There are obvious angiogenic factors disorder and vascular endotheial dysfunction in patients with hypertensive retinopathy of pregnancy, and its level is correlated with the degree of retinopathy.