The General Introduction in Section 1, Page 1 describes briefly the scope of the work in this thesis. Section 2 deals with the Historical facts with emphasis on the History in South Africa which has never been published previously. In addition the.general history as well as the literature concerning the Etiology, Pathogenesis and follow up studies is summarised. Section 3 is a study of the incidence of the Toxaemias of late pregnancy within the municipal boundaries of the city of Cape Town and the Langa Native Township, and their racial grouping. A separate introduction on page 38 as well as the problems investigated on page 48 and the standards employed on page 49 as well ·as the methods and material on page 50 indicate how this problem was investigated. The conclusions of this aspect of the study are summarised on page 850. Section 4 deals with follow up studies of 100 cases of non-convulsive toxaemia and 100 cases of eclampsia, and the material and methods are described on pages 88 and 94 respectively. Section 5 portrays the results of the follow up studies and the conclusions reached in this regard. In addition fields for further investigation are suggested on page 22,9. Section 6, the Appendix, gives additional case history information and Section 7 reproduces the Bibliography used.

Ever since the association between altJ.Jminuria and eclampsia was noted by Lever in 1843, the kidney has figured in the forefront in the search for aetiological factors. Lever, who was a contemporary of Bright at Guy's Hospital, observed the close similarity in appearance between many of his eclamptic patients and patients with Bright's disease. Examination of the urine was the logical next step. Having fould albumin in nine out of ten eclamptic patients in whom the urine had been examined, he went on to exanine the urine of fifty "normal 11 controls, and (rather surprisingly, since one would have anticipated a proportion of unrecognised preeclamptic patients amongst these) found albumin to be absent in every case. Lever recognised the "transitory nature 11 of pregnancy proteinuria and concluded that the condition differed from the permanent proteinuria of Bright's disease.In the same month of the same year (1843), Simpson made a similar observation in Edinburgh regarding proteinuria and eclampsia. Whilst also recognising that albuminuria disappeared in those patients who survived, he never theless attributed the syndrome of albuminuria and convulsions to underlying Bright's disease. This was a view that persisted for some time despite its obvious inconsistencies. Carl Braun of Vienna endorsed this concept and the chapter dealing with albuminuria and eclampsia in his "Lerbuch" was translated and run as a series of articles in the Edinburgh Medical Journal (1856 57). In this work, Braun states firmly that eclampsia is a direct result of the uraemia resulting from poorly functioning kidneys. The kidney featured prominently in many subsequent theories on aetiology but the idea of primary renal disease being the origin of the process leading to eclampsia was shortlived.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995. / Thesis date on spine.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995. / Thesis date on spine.