Seizures In Pregnant Women With High Blood Pressure

Overview

Seizures among pregnant women With High Blood Pressure is also known as Eclampsia. Eclampsia is a condition of tonic-clonic convulsions in preeclampsia where no other apparent cause for the seizure can be found. The reason for the seizure to happen is due to cerebral vasospasm, cerebral edema, and cerebral infarction. The risk factors can be divided into maternal, medical causes and fetoplacental causes. Maternal causes include primigravida, a history of pre-eclampsia and young women. Fetoplacental causes are multiple gestation, hydrops fetalis, and molar pregnancy. Some medical causes which can cause eclampsia are pre-existing diabetes mellitus, renal disease, vascular disease, connective tissue disorder, and thrombophilia. Investigations to be done are PE (pre-eclampsia) profile which includes full blood count to evaluate haemoglobin and thrombocytopenia for HELLP syndrome, liver function test to look for elevation of ALT , blood urea and serum electrolytes to evaluate the kidneys function and uric acid level to evaluate the severity of the disease. Treatment is with magnesium sulfate and deliver the baby if no contraindication and if already more than 36weeks of pregnancy.