April 4, 2008

Pregnancy Induced Hypertension & HELLP Syndrome

Posted in Category : Women's Health

Pregnancy induced hypertension is a form of increases in high blood pressure in pregnancy period. In addition to it there is another kind of high blood pressure is chronic hypertension, high blood pressure that is present before pregnancy begins. Preeclampsia is the etymology of pregnancy induced hypertension which often occurs in young women in first pregnancy. Usually hypertension is common in twin pregnancies, women with chronic hypertension occurs due to preexisting diabetes, an in women who had pregnancy induced hypertension in previous delivery. There are some major pregnancy induced hypertension like eclampsia and hellp.

One severe form of pregnancy-induced hypertension is known as Eclampsia. Women who suffer from eclampsia mostly experience seizures due to this condition. One in every 1,600 pregnancies is prone to this condition and generally Eclampsia progresses only at the later stages of a pregnancy.

HELLP syndrome is a complication of severe preeclampsia. HELLP syndrome is a group of physical changes including the breakdown of red blood cells, changes in the liver and low platelets (cells found in the blood that are needed to help the blood to clot in order to control bleeding).

The cause of pregnancy induced hypertension is still unknown. Some conditions may increase the risk of developing tension like pre existing hypertension, kidney disease, diabetes, tension due to previous pregnancy, age of the mother younger than twenty or older than 40 and multiple fetuses.

Although the high blood pressure is due to the increase in resistance of blood vessels. This may block blood flow in many different organs in the expectant mother including the liver, kidney, uterus, placenta and brain. The most common symptoms of high blood pressure in pregnancy are increased blood pressure, protein in urine, sudden weight gain, edema, nausea, urinating small amount and vomiting. Hence these are symptoms and type of pregnancy induced hypertension.