VASCULAR REACTIVITY AND ELECTROLYTES IN NORMAL AND TOXEMIC PREGNANCY PATHOGENIC CONSIDERATIONS AND A DIAGNOSTIC PRE-TOXEMIA TEST*

Abstract

For decades, the origin of toxemia of pregnancy was the subject of many more or less poorly founded speculations. Hofbauer (1) was probably the first to suspect an important involvement of the adrenal cortex in its pathogenesis. Finally, the demonstration of an increased corticoid production during pregnancy and of the role played by adrenal corticoids in the formation of edema and in the pathogenesis of arterial hypertension provided some solid footholds from which to attack the problem systematically.