What’s in a name?: Exploring inconsistent and contradictory definitions and clinical guidelines for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy from published literature from Nigeria and Bangladesh

摘要

Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E), among other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs), are the second most common causes of maternal death globally, leading to 76 000 maternal deaths yearly [ ]. These conditions are preventable and manageable, but only if they can be detected, and diagnosed early. In Nigeria, 29 percent of maternal deaths in tertiary facilities are caused by HDPs, including PE/E [ ], and in Bangladesh 20 percent of maternal deaths are caused by eclampsia.[ ] The World Health Organization defines PE as new onset of “hypertension during pregnancy (with persistent diastolic blood pressure (dBP) >90 millimeters of mercury, mmHg) with the occurrence of substantial proteinuria (>0.3 g /24hr)” and eclampsia as “generalized seizures in women with pre-eclampsia” [ ].