BACKGROUND Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy-specific hypertensive disorder usually occurs after 20 weeks of gestation. It is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Ethiopia, the major direct obstetric complications including pre-eclampsia/eclampsia account for 85% of the maternal deaths. Unlike deaths due to other direct causes, pre-eclampsia/ ecla...

Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are two hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, considered major causes of maternal and perinatal death worldwide. Pre-eclampsia is a multisystemic disease characterized by the development of hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation, with the presence of proteinuria or, in its absence, of signs or symptoms indicative of target organ injury. Eclampsia represents the cons...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether first trimester maternal serum PP13 can predict pre-eclampsia among women with a priori high risk. METHOD This was a nested case-control study. Women less than 14 weeks' gestation at increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia were recruited. Venous blood samples were assayed for PP13 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. PP13 multiples of median (MoM) were cal...

We evaluated the prognostic value of serum endostatin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. We determined VEGF and endostatin levels in the sera of 20 healthy, non-pregnant women and 64 pregnant women: 20 healthy, 20 with mild pre-eclampsia and 24 with severe pre-eclampsia. Serum levels of these factors in non-pregnant women were similar to those in healt...

Eclampsia is an extremely severe form of preeclampsia characterized by the sudden onset of generalized tonic clonic seizures. It may occur quite abruptly, without any warning manifestations. This is a case report where Mrs.X was normotensive throughout her pregnancy who underwent emergency cesarean section for cephalo pelvic disproportion and threw generalized tonic clonic seizures on the first...

  Background and Objective: Hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy are common and from one of the deadly triad, along with hemorrhage and infection that contribute greatly to prenatal and maternal morbidity and mortality in the developing countries. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between maternal hypothyroidism and pre-eclampsia. Materials and Methods: In a pro...

BACKGROUND The occurrence of eclampsia may be related to season and altitude. METHODS We studied the influence of environmental factors such as range of temperature and relative humidity on the occurrence of eclampsia by collecting data on consecutive cases of eclampsia admitted to the Government Maternity Hospital, Hyderabad, from September 1987 to August 1988. The mean range of temperature ...

Background: Eclampsia, defined as the occurrence during pregnancy of hypertension, oedema, proteinuria and/or other neurologic abnormalities, causes substantial morbidity and mortality for both mother and foetus. However, its aetiology is largely unknown. Genetic and immune factors may play a role including a reduced maternal response to paternal antigen and an altered adaptation of the materna...

Eclampsia is defined in the obstetrical literature as the occurrence of unexplained seizure during pregnancy in a woman with preeclampsia.1,2 In the Western world, the incidence of eclampsia is ∼1 per 2000 to 1 per 3000 pregnancies3–5, but the incidence is 10-fold higher in tertiary referral centers and undeveloped countries where there is poor prenatal care, and in multi-fetal gestations.6,7 N...