48-52 JOG 2 Review.pmd

Every year, 536,000 women die from pregnancyrelated causes. More than 80 percent of maternal deaths worldwide are due to five direct causes: hemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, obstructed labor and hypertensive disease of pregnancy. The latest report from the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths (UK) lists eclampsia and pre-eclampsia as the second most common cause and showed an increase from the previous report. The latest statistics from the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (2006) listed hypertension as causing 143/545 (26.24%) maternal deaths. Further broken down, hypertension deaths were preeclampsia (50), eclampsia (66), pre-existing hypertension (8), chronic hypertension with pre-eclampsia (8) and HELLP syndrome (11). Clearly, therefore, any attempt to curb maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity due to hypertensive states will result not only in less loss of lives but also in less deprivation of financial and material resources. This paper presents an update on a new pseudo-vasculogenesis theory and its possible application as diagnostic markers in the prediction and prevention of pre-eclampsia.