[Clinical implications of basic research in preeclampsia: immunological tolerance]. / Implicaciones clínicas de la investigación básica de la preeclampsia: tolerancia inmunológica.

Preeclampsia is one of the main causes of maternal and perinatal mortality in the world; however, the pathophysiologic pathways haven't been clearly elucidated. It is thought to result from a breakdown of maternal tolerance to paternal antigens in placenta that start an immune response against the trophoblast inducing a defective placentation and a hipoxic/isquemic environment which in turn triggers a systemic inflamatory response. This review gives an overview of the mechanims involved in maternal tolerance, how these are disrupted in preeclampsia, and how they contribute to the inflamatory response.

[Eclampsia, obstetric hemorrhage and heart disease as a cause of maternal mortality in 15 years of analysis]. / Eclampsia, hemorragia obstétrica y cardiopatía como causa de mortalidad materna en 15 años de análisis.

BACKGROUND: It has been described that 70% of all maternal deaths are provoked by obstetrical hemorrhage, infections, abortions, hypertension and delivery dystocies. Poverty, social exclusion, low level education and violence are important causes of maternal mortality. OBJECTIVE: To establish the changes in the maternal mortality in a term of 15 years in a hospital of assistance obstetrical complicated. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective and descriptive study, in which the number and causes of obstetrical death was analyzed, occurred from 1991 to 2005. The comparison was done by five-year periods using descriptive statistics to analyze frequency of results. RESULTS: The number of maternal deaths was 105, 97 and 42 by each one of the three five-year periods, the mortality rate x 10,000 decreased from 28.7 to 16.4 in the last quinquennium and was found from 6.1 just including the last year. In the first and second quinquennia the eclampsia occupied the first place as cause of death, followed by the hemorrhage and the infections. In the third quinquennium the eclampsia also occupied the first place with a rate of 8.6, followed by the cardiopathy (2.3) and the infections (1.9), but the hemorrhage with a rate of 1.5 was displaced to the fourth place. CONCLUSIONS: The maternal mortality has diminished in a general way; the eclampsia has occupied the first place as cause of death from 1991 to 2005. The death by obstetrical hemorrhage has diminished in important form, possibly due to the specific groups of medical attention by modules, which has also helps the decrease of mortality by other causes. The increment of the deaths by cardiopathy should be considered as a possibility of risk, associate undoubtedly to the present style of life from our society.

[Abdominal pregnancy care. Case report]. / Atención del embarazo abdominal. Comunicación de un caso.

Abdominal pregnancies are the implantation of gestation in some of the abdominal structures. This kind of pregnancies represents sevenfold maternal death risk than tubarian ectopic pregnancies, and 90-fold death risk than normal ones. Previous cases have erroneously reported as abscess in Douglas punch, and frequently result in obitus or postnatal deaths. We report a case of a patient with 27 years old, and diagnosis of 25.2 weeks of pregnancy, prior placenta and anhidramnios, referred due to difficult in uterine contour delimitation, easy palpation of fetal parts, cephalic pole in left hypochondrious and presence of mass in hypogastria, no delimitations, pain with mobilization, no transvaginal bleed and fetal movements. Interruption of pregnancy is decided by virtue of severe oligohidramnios, retardation in fetal intrabdominal growth, and recurrent maternal abdominal pain. Surgical intervention was carried out for resolution of the obstetrical event, in which was found ectopic abdominal pregnancy with bed placental in right uterine horn that corresponded to a pregnancy of 30 weeks of gestation. Abdominal pregnancy is still a challenge for obstetrics due to its diagnosis and treatment. Early diagnosis is oriented to prevent an intrabdominal hemorrhage that is the main maternal cause of mortality.

[Diagnostic and frequency of fetal heart disease by echocardiography in pregnancies with high-risk factors]. / Diagnóstico y frecuencia de cardiopatía fetal mediante ecocardiografía en embarazos con factores de alto riesgo.

BACKGROUND: Fetal heart diseases are increasingly frequent. These are part of birth defects and, therefore, appear in early phases of the gestation. Diagnosis or early detection of functional and structural abnormalities of the heart allows to the obstetrician and the pediatric cardiologist to plan, in a timely manner, the treatment and prenatal and postnatal monitoring with the purpose of preventing complications. OBJECTIVE: To determine the types and frequencies of heart diseases in pregnancies with high-risk factors. PATIENTS AND METHOD: It was analized an observational, descriptive and retrospective series of cases. From January 2003 to June 2006, fetal echocardiograms were made in women with pregnancies longer than 15 weeks and with high-risk factors. At childbirth was made a cardiovascular evaluation. Analysis was carried out through descriptive statistics. RESULTS: maternal age average was of 27.3 +/- 6.8 years; gestational age was of 31 +/- 5 weeks. In total, there were carried out 275 fetal echocardiograms (FE) in 208 patients; in 56 of them, was made one fetal ecocardiogram, two in 37 and three in 15. Risk factors of reference to the specialized medical unit were: abnormalities detected through obstetrical ultrasound (35.1%), tachycardia-bradycardia-arrhythmia (29.8%), probable chromosomic anomalies (13.9%), oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios (4.8%), familiar antecedents of congenital heart diseases (3.8%), others (12.6%). Heart disease was diagnosed by fetal echocardiogram in 55 patient (26.4%): unique ventricle (n = 5), hypoplastic right ventricle (n = 3), hypoplastic left ventricle (n = 4), congenital complete heart block (n = 1), Ebstein and dysplasia of the mitral and tricuspid valves (n = 12), tumor (n = 5), ectopia cordis (n = 2), auriculoventricular channel (= 1), supraventricular tachycardia (n = 4), supraventricular extrasystole (n = 3) and other. Diagnosis was confirmed at childbirth in 99.5% of the cases. The treatment was initiated in uterus for arrhythmia and cardiac insufficiency in 19 patients. The patients with high-risk cardiopathy (at birth) were evaluated at beginning through specialized cardiological treatment and then they were transferred to the service of pediatric cardiology. CONCLUSIONS: Frequency of fetal heart diseases in patients with high-risk factors is of 25.4%. In these patients, the fetal echocardiogram (prenatal and postnatal) allows planning the optimal cardiological and obstetric treatment as well as to inform to the relatives.