Preeclampsia is a serious disorder of pregnancy. The syndrome is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the United Kingdom and it also contributes significantly to perinatal morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality is primarily due to cerebral complications. Despite continued research, the aetiology of preeclampsia remains unknown. This has limited the development of screening, preventive and therapeutic measures to control the syndrome. Present management is based on basic screening to detect early signs of the syndrome, observation of its progress and occasionally therapeutic intervention to control hypertension. Delivery is timed to prevent maternal and fetal complications, while simultaneously aiming to gain fetal maturity. Unfortunately, in many situations this control is not possible. Owing to an increasing understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease, a new option for prophylaxis - low-dose aspirin - may soon be available. If prevention of preeclampsia becomes a reality, a simple but sensitive screening test will be required to select those women who will benefit from treatment. This thesis is focused on the prevention of preeclampsia and its complications. It will involve examination of screening tests, the preventive therapy low-dose aspirin, and the preliminary assessment of a new technique to detect women at risk for developing cerebral complications from the disease.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/269283 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Kyle, Phillipa Marie |
| Publisher | ResearchSpace@Auckland |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: the author |
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