Equipamento para cistometria / Equipment cystometry

This work evaluates a microprocessed cistometry equipment developed by the Biomedical Engineering Div. of the HCPA. The system provides an useful means of quantifying bladders pressures and volume during the filling of bladder...

Calciuria and preeclampsia

Urinary calcium excretion has been reported to be diminished in preeclampsia. The objective of the present study was to determine urinary calcium excretion in pregnant patients with chronic arterial hypertension (CAH) and preeclampsia (PE), and in normotensive patients (N). Forty-four pregnant patients (gestational age, 20-42 weeks; 18 CAH, 17PE, 9N) were evaluated for calciuria, proteinuria, plasma uric acid and blood pressure. Patients with PE (82 + 15.1 mg/24 h) showed significantly lower calciuria (P<0.05) than the group with CAH (147 + 24.9 mg/24 h) and the N group (317 + 86.0 mg/24 h) (P<0.05, Student t-test), Plasma uric acid was significantly higher in the PE group (6.1 + 0.38 mg/dl) than the CAH group (5.0 + 0.33 mg/dl; P<0.05), which also presented higher proteinuria levels, although the difference was not statistically significant. Diastolic and systolic blood pressure did not differ between the PE (164 + 105 mmHg) and CAH (164 + 107 mmHg) groups. Calciuria was significantly lower in the group with preeclampsia than in the group with chronic arterial hypertension. We conclude that calciuria can be a further factor for identifying preeclampsia.

Placental bed lesions and infant birth weight in hypertensive pregnant women

Sixty pregnant women with systemic arterial hypertension, whose pregnancies were interrupted by cesarean section at the Maternity Ward of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre between May 1989 and October 1990, were examined. Specimens of the placental bed were collected by biopsy and the presence of acute atheromatosis and/or fibrinoid necrosis was investigated. The patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of vascular lesions. The biopsy findings of the placental bed were compared with adequate weight at birth related to gestational age, and to the following clinical parameters of the mother: arterial blood pressure, serum creatinine, serum uric acid and proteinuria. Twenty-seven (45 percent) patients presented vascular lesions in the placental bed compatible with acute atheromatosis and/ or fibrinoid necrosis. The presence of vascular changes in the placental bed correlated significantly to diminished weight of the newborn, in terms of the mean weight and in terms of small-for-gestational-age infants, non-nephrotic proteinuria (>=300 mg/24h) and increased levels of uric acid (>=5.5 mg/dl)