Predicting the development of pregnancy-associated hypertension. The place of standardised blood-pressure measurement
Gallery, E.D.; Hunyor, S.N.; Ross, M.; Györy, A.Z.
Lancet 1(8025): 1273-1275
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0140-6736 PMID: 68380 Document Number: 111323
Initially normotensive pregnant women (82) with no known history of renal disease were seen at monthly intervals from 16 wk amenorrhea onwards, and their blood-pressure (B.P.) was measured sitting and lying on their left side; 15 developed hypertension (B.P. > 135/85 mm Hg lying on the left side) in late pregnancy. When these women were compared with the 67 who remained normotensive throughout, their B.P. were significantly higher even in early pregnancy, although individual patients were not always separable in this way. When B.P. measured in this rigidly standardized manner was compared with routine antenatal clinic values, it was apparent that the latter did not detect the difference between the 2 groups. Women who developed hypertension in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) may represent a separate group from entirely normal pregnant women from the beginning of pregnancy.