[The clinical and anatomical aspects of preeclampsia: current features of its course].

Preeclampsia is the most menacing complication of pregnancy and childbirth worldwide and remains one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. It is characterized by a complex etiopathogenesis with specific clinical and laboratory changes (hypertension, proteinuria and edema), as well as by the morphological pattern of target organ damage and uteroplacental blood vascular lesions. However, the triad of clinical signs of preeclampsia is not encountered in all cases now.

OBJECTIVE: to study the clinical and anatomical aspects of preeclampsia at the present stage.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 17 maternal deaths due to preeclampsia were studied at the medical institutions of the Moscow Healthcare Department from 2012 to the first half of 2017 through postmortem examination at City Clinical Hospital Thirty-One, Moscow Healthcare Department.

RESULTS: This analysis showed the atypical course of preeclampsia (without substantial blood pressure elevations, with mild/moderate proteinuria, but almost always with edema). The characteristic feature is a laboratory sign, such as thrombocytopenia and liver enzyme dysfunction. Morphological examination of deceased patients showed that almost half of the cases had brain hemorrhages of different localization and size; in most cases, renal changes corresponded to the pattern of a shock kidney with endotheliosis and frequently with cortical necroses. The liver was characterized by a considerable increase in size with the development of fatty dystrophy, centrolobular necroses and hemorrhages; there were metabolic damage foci in the heart in almost half of the cases, as well as signs of disseminated intravascular coagulation with numerous hemorrhages in the organs and tissues.

CONCLUSION: Characteristic uteroplacental artery morphological changes in both the surgical and autopsy material render a leading assistance in the diagnosis of preeclampsia/eclampsia.