THE UREA CLEARANCE TEST IN TOXEMIAS OF PREGNANCY

Abstract

Van Slyke''s urea clearance (104 tests), done on 64 patients with toxemia of pregnancy, eclampsia, chronic nephritis and normal pregnancy, checked up well with the clinical diagnoses with few exceptions. It was found to be higher than the usual normal limits in normal pregnancy, normal in toxemias, decreased in the acute stage of eclampsia (with tendency to rapid return to normal in one case) and low with a high degree of consistency in chronic nephritis. Other tests (phenol-sulphonephthalein, 1 hr. renal, blood chemistry) did not help in the differentiation between chronic nephritis and acute toxemias. The data also suggest a correlation between the high urea clearance and the low blood urea N in normal pregnancy.