Posterior reversible leucoencephalopathy syndrome: a rare complication of preeclampsia
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Emmanuel Kalu
Abstract
Complete loss of vision on the delivery suit is a worrying and unusual experience for patients and clinicians. Sudden total blindness, associated with confusion and hemiparesis is even more so, and this is what obtains in Posterior Reversible Leucoencephalopathy Syndrome (PRES).
PRES is a recently recognized syndrome characterized clinically by headache, altered mental status, seizures, cortical blindness and other focal neurological signs, with imaging findings of bilateral cortical and subcortical changes on CT and MRI.
This syndrome has been reported in a number of clinical conditions characterized by either an acute elevation of blood pressure or treatment with certain drugs.
We report a case of cortical blindness, altered mental status and hemiparesis in a 34 year old woman with severe pre-eclampsia complicated by PRES in the puerperium. Abnormalities were demonstrated on CT and MRI with persistent unusual ischemic hyperintensity on T1 weighted MRI imaging thought to correspond with a specific reactive astrocytosis unlike that seen in typical infarction or hemorrhage.
It is important for clinicians to be aware of this rare complication of pre-eclampsia, as early recognition will facilitate treatment and prevent permanent neuronal damage.
References
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©2006 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- In-line filters in central venous catheters in a neonatal intensive care unit
- Integrating the role of infection in prediction and prevention of preterm delivery
- Studies on the prevalence of human papillomavirus in pregnant women in Japan
- Unilateral pulmonary agenesis
- Posterior reversible leucoencephalopathy syndrome: a rare complication of preeclampsia
- Isolated spontaneous fetal heart rate decelerations: prognostic significance
- Combination of vasa praevia, true umbilical cord knot and a subserosal hemorrhage
- Neonatal pneumopericardium
- Congress Calendar
- Roster of Perinatal Societies
Articles in the same Issue
- WAPM-Newsletter No 1/2006 7thWORLD CONGRESS OF PERINATAL MEDICINE in Zagreb, September 21–24, 2005
- Cerebral palsy and fetal inflammatory response syndrome: a review
- A sonographic short cervix as the only clinical manifestation of intra-amniotic infection
- Suppression of IL-2 and IFN-γ production in women with spontaneous preterm labor
- Does practice make perfect? An age-matched study on grand multiparity in Flanders, Belgium
- Efficacy of a strategy to prevent neonatal early-onset group B streptococcal (GBS) sepsis
- Four-dimensional ultrasonography of the fetal heart using a novel Tomographic Ultrasound Imaging display
- Normal standards for fetal neurobehavioral developments – longitudinal quantification by four-dimensional sonography
- Selective surfactant prophylaxis in preterm infants born at ≤31 weeks' gestation using the stable microbubble test in gastric aspirates
- In-line filters in central venous catheters in a neonatal intensive care unit
- Integrating the role of infection in prediction and prevention of preterm delivery
- Studies on the prevalence of human papillomavirus in pregnant women in Japan
- Unilateral pulmonary agenesis
- Posterior reversible leucoencephalopathy syndrome: a rare complication of preeclampsia
- Isolated spontaneous fetal heart rate decelerations: prognostic significance
- Combination of vasa praevia, true umbilical cord knot and a subserosal hemorrhage
- Neonatal pneumopericardium
- Congress Calendar
- Roster of Perinatal Societies
