Prevalence of Thrombocytopenia Among Pregnant Women at Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Afghanistan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background and objective: Thrombocytopenia is common during pregnancy, but published evidence from Afghanistan is limited.This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of documented thrombocytopenia among pregnant women admitted to selected wards at Rabia Balkhi Hospital, Kabul, and, among affected women, to describe severity, trimester distribution, maternal age, platelet count, and recorded diagnostic categories.Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of inpatient registers and medical records from the general internal medicine and obstetric emergency wards between August 23, 2025, and March 20, 2026.The registers contained 1,760 unique pregnant women.Medical records of 138 women identified as having thrombocytopenia were reviewed, and all 138 women had platelet counts below 150 × 10⁹/L.Severity was classified as mild (100-149 × 10⁹/L), moderate (50-99 × 10⁹/L), or severe (<50 × 10⁹/L).Data were summarized descriptively using SPSS Statistics version 32.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2026.IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 32.0.Armonk, NY).Results: The documented prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 7.84% (138/1,760; 95% confidence interval: 6.67-9.19%).Mild, moderate, and severe thrombocytopenia occurred in 46 (33.3%), 64 (46.4%), and 28 (20.3%)women, respectively.Most affected women were in the third trimester (114; 82.6%).Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy constituted the largest recorded diagnostic category (79; 57.2%), including hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count (HELLP) syndrome (35 cases), preeclampsia (28 cases), and eclampsia (16 cases).Gestational thrombocytopenia accounted for 24 cases (17.4%), immune thrombocytopenia for nine (6.5%), and other or associated conditions for 26 (18.8%).Conclusions: Documented thrombocytopenia affected 7.84% of pregnant women registered in the selected wards.Moderate thrombocytopenia was the most frequent severity category, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy constituted the largest recorded diagnostic category.The findings apply to this selected tertiary hospital population and should not be generalized to routine antenatal populations.