Читать книгу The Mother and Her Child - Lena K. Sadler - Страница 76

Since toxemia (eclampsia) is one of the complications of pregnancy most to be dreaded, it is fortunate that it almost invariably exhibits early danger signals which, if recognized and heeded, would enable the patient and physician to initiate proper measures to avert danger and escape the threatened disaster. The presence of this toxic danger is indicated by the persistent presence of the following three symptoms:

1 Persistent, dull headache.

2 Presence of casts in the urine.

3 Persistent high blood-pressure, with tendency to increase.

Fig. 4. Taking the Blood Pressure.

Of course, albumin will probably appear in the urine along with the casts, but it is the continued appearance of the casts that is of more importance as a danger signal. Albumin is quite common in the urine of the expectant mother, but casts—long continued—suggest trouble. Headache as an indicator of toxemia is of special significance when coupled with the other two cardinal symptoms of eclampsia—urinary casts and increasing high blood-pressure. Therefore, the necessity for frequent urinary tests and blood-pressure examinations during the last weeks of pregnancy—especially, if the patient has suffered from headaches and has been running albumin in the urine.