RELATION OF HYPERTENSIVE TOXEMIA OF PREGNANCY TO CHRONIC CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Abstract

When a pregnant woman exhibits one or more of the following symptoms, she is ordinarily said to have a toxemia: (1) pernicious vomiting, (2) jaundice, (3) hypertension, (4) albuminuria, (5) edema, (6) severe anemia, (7) convulsions, (8) visual disturbances. Cases showing these symptoms fall into certain groups, which can be roughly classified on clinical or pathologic grounds as follows: (1) pernicious vomiting; (2) acute yellow atrophy of the liver; (3) acute (eclamptic) toxemia; (4) subacute or hypertensive toxemia; (5) nephritic toxemia. These seem to fall into two classes, the first including pernicious vomiting and acute yellow atrophy—types of cases which are not considered in this report: the second, including the remaining three. This classification, while arbitrary and tentative, has proved useful in treatment and prognosis. Among the acute toxemias are placed those in which, in most instances, there is a sudden and stormy onset, and a short course with convulsions—the