Antepartum percutaneous renal biopsy

To assess the value and adverse effects of an ultrasound-guided renal biopsy technique in women with normal and pathologic pregnancies.

Biopsy samples were taken from 36 women with hypertensive disease (28 with pre-eclampsia) and 18 healthy pregnant women using a thin needle and an ultrasound-guided biopsy device.

Glomerular endotheliosis, a structural change typical of pre-eclampsia, was found in all hypertensive women, but it was more pronounced in the 28 pre-eclamptic women than in the 8 women with nonproteinuric hypertension. A similar change, however, was seen in 11 of the 18 controls. One serious adverse event occurred, retroperitoneal hematoma, in the woman with the most severe pre-eclampsia.

Glomerular endotheliosis is not to be considered pathognomonic for pre-eclampsia. Few complications followed renal biopsy in this study, but complications arose in the sickest patient. It is probably not advisable to perform antepartum renal biopsies in pregnant women with a rapidly deteriorating renal function and swollen kidneys. In these women, the biopsy does not facilitate diagnosis and is hazardous.