Preeclampsia and the 20th Century: “Le siècle des Lumières”

Publication date: Available online 30 May 2018 Source:Pregnancy Hypertension Author(s): Pierre-Yves Robillard, Gustaaf Dekker, Gérard Chaouat, Philippe Le Bouteiller, Marco Scioscia, Thomas C. Hulsey The authors delineate seven quantum leap forward and, or revolutions having occurred during the 20th century in the understanding of the physiopathology of preeclampsia. First the discovery of the inflatable arm band permitting to measure blood pressure in 1896. Second, the discovery that eclamptic (convulsions), and later “pre”eclamptic (proteinuria) women presented hypertension in 1897 and confirmed in 1903, discovery of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Third, the eight major textbooks published all along the 20th century by delineating risk factors of preeclampsia with the concept of “preeclampsia, disease of primigravidae”. Fourth, the discovery in the 1970’s that human trophoblast implantation was far deeper than in other mammalian species. Fifth, and a major step forward, description at the end of the 1980’s that the maternal syndrome in preeclampsia (glomeruloendotheliosis, HELLP syndrome, eclampsia) could be unified in a global endothelial cell inflammation. Sixth, the epidemiological descriptions in the 1970-1990’s that indeed preeclampsia was a disease of first pregnancies at the level of a couple (“primipaternity concept”), leading to an explosion in immunological research in the last decade, beginning in 1998. Seventh and finally, in...

Source: Pregnancy Hypertension: An International Journal of Womens Cardiovascular Health - May 30, 2018 Category: OBGYN Source Type: research