Abstract
Summary
The influence of pregnancy on arterial pressure, proteinuria, weight, and fetal and neonatal morbidity was studied in 2 groups of animals. Group I, 20 uninephrectomized rats, received DOCA and sodium chloride throughout the entire study. Group II, 10 uninephrectomized rats, was bred after withdrawal of the DOCA sodium chloride regimen. There were marked fluctuations in weight of these animals during the time that they received the DOCA and sodium chloride. Pregnancy did not alter the course of hypertension in either group, but both groups showed increased proteinuria during pregnancy. Only 66% of the offspring of Group I was born alive and only 75% of the offspring of Group II were born alive. During the third week of pregnancy, 6 of the animals in the hypertensive groups experienced more than a 10% increase in weight during a 24-hour period and 3 of them convulsed. These data suggest that the fluid balance is affected when pregnancy is superimposed on this type of experimental hypertension.
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