Sodium Depletion Simulating Deterioration in a Toxemic Pregnancy

Abstract

WHEN renal function is measured in a patient with pre-eclampsia, decreasing glomerular filtration rate accompanied by greater percentage reduction in uric acid clearance ordinarily suggests increasing severity of the toxemia.^{1 , 2} As the following report shows, however, similar decrements in renal function may be due to sodium depletion and not progression of toxemia.Case ReportA 25-year-old multipara was hospitalized at 31 weeks' gestation with a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia superimposed on pre-existing hypertension. She had a hypertension of 4 years' duration, and 2 years previously, pre-eclampsia had complicated her initial pregnancy. She was asymptomatic, but the blood pressure, which had averaged . . .