Friday, July 6, 2012

If Hypertension is diagnosed in early pregnancy, is it Pregnancy Induced Hypertension

By definition, pregnancy induced hypertension occurs after the 20th week of pregnancy. Pregnancy induced hypertension occurs as a result of abnormal placentation. Placenta is the part that is designed to absorb nutrition from the mother. Placenta acts as the interface which the baby's blood exchange nutrients and waste products with the mother's blood. In the placenta, the baby's blood vessels and the mother's blood vessels form a complex that allows this process. To create this complex, the mother's blood vessels should expand.

What happens in pregnancy induced hypertension is that the mother's blood vessels don't expand properly. As a result, the resistant against which the mother has to pump blood increases. This increases the mother's blood pressure. This expansion of the blood vessels occurs around the 20th week of gestation.

As described above, the blood pressure rise in  pregnancy induced hypertension occurs around 20th week of gestation. Therefore,  if the rise in blood pressure is discovered in early pregnancy, it is unlikely to be pregnancy induced hypertension. In such is cases, the most likely cause is pre-existing hypertension.


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