Parturient paresis and eclampsia. Similarities between these two diseases

Abstract

In June, 1907, the attention of one of us (Healy) was called by Dr. M. A. Scovell, Director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, to parturient paresis in the dairy cow. Dr. Scovell's intention was to have, if possible, the etiology cleared up.

It proved impossible to take up the problem until one year ago, and as our studies progressed, the similarity between parturient paresis and eclampsia became more and more evident. They are both intoxications which occur suddenly just before, during or immediately after labor. They are characterized by the same clinical features, namely, suddenness of onset, loss of consciousness, coma and similar febrile conditions. In both, the urinalyses are the most important clinical features, and the urinalyses in these two conditions are similar, namely, a disturbance of the nitrogen distribution among the compounds containing nitrogen, an increase of the ammonia excreted, the presence of albumen, and microscopically the presence of hyaline, granular and epithelial casts and blood cells.

The finer pathological changes occurring in parturient paresis have not been established, and as none of our cases died, we have not had the opportunity of studying these changes. However, wehave had ample opportunity to study the finer pathological changes in three guinea pigs which died in five, six and seven days under the influence of the toxin of parturient paresis. We have also observed these changes in another guinea pig, which received a smaller dose of the toxin, the dose not being sufficient to cause death in ten days and therefore he was chloroformed. The pathological findings in these guinea pigs correspond in every way to the characteristic lesions of eclampsia, namely, there was hemorrhagic necrosis of the liver, acute parenchymatous nephritis with interstitial hemorrhages, degeneration of the cells of the adrenal cortex, with interstitial hemorrhages, and destruction of the medullary portion.