No abstract

Abstiact. Radioactive """'Tc (300 &I) tracer and a gamma camera were used to study placental function between the 34th and 40th weeks of pregnancy in 10 women with a normal pregnancy, 34 with mild and two with severe pre-eclampsia. The placenta was first localised by the Doppler method and then the gamma camera was aimed at right angles to the site. After the injection the radioactivity over the placenta was counted and a series of radiographs was made at intervals of 30 sec for up to 12 m n . The two values correlated. When the material was grouped according to the week of pregnancy, perfusion was fastest in the 34th week (3.1k0.87 min) and slowest in the 40th week ( S . S i 1.27 min). The difference was significant. There was no significant difference when the material was divided into groups on the basis of normal and toxaemic pregnancies.

Cyproterone acetate (100 mg daily on the 5th-14th days of the normal cycle) together with ethinyl estradiol (0.05 mg daily on the 5th-25th days) was used for the treatment of hirsutism in 23 women for six months. This treatment caused a significant decrease in the severity of the hirsutism after only three months, the effect being maximal after six months. Sixty per cent of our patients reported being subjectively satisfied with the results. A relapse occurred, however, within three months of the end of the treatment in half the patients. The serum testosterone was significantly decreased after three months of treatment, but the changes in serum testosterone did not follow the changes in the clinical picture of hirsutism, suggesting that one facet in the favorable action of cyproterone acetate is an inhibition of the action of androgen on target cells. Various side effects, such as nausea, headache, loss of libido and depression, were reported very frequently, which undoubtedly limits the large scale use of this treatment, at least with the doses used in this study.

Sera from 176 patients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, and oedema of pregnancy, and from 51 normal pregnant control subjects were tested for smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) by indirect immunofluorescence. An increased incidence of SMA positivity was found in cases of pre-eclampsia and in superimposed pre-eclampsia of pregnancy, oedema of pregnancy and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy combined with oedema of pregnancy. In the pre-eclampsia group, SMA positivity occurred only in cases of pre-eclampsia levis and was often accompanied by mild proteinuria. This indicates that SMA are a result rather than a cause of an (immuno)pathological process, the short duration of which in severe forms is not enough for the development of the antibodies. The increased incidence of positive SMA titres in oedematous pregnant patients may be a sign of imminent pre-eclampsia, although oedema is often regarded as being a feature of otherwise normal pregnancies.