Coagulation and the hypertensive diseases of pregnancy

The coagulation and fibrinolytic systems were investigated in a group of patients with essential hypertension during pregnancy, and the findings were compared with those of normal gravid women. Patients with essential hypertension exhibited the following significant differences: shortened partial thromboplastin times, thrombocytopenia, and decreased antithrombin III levels. Euglobulin lysis times and assays for fibrin breakdown products suggest that essential hypertension is not associated with changes in the fibrinolytic mechanism. Until more sophisticated studies can be performed on such patients, it cannot be concluded that the increased coagulability observed in pregnant patients with essential hypertension represents a state of intravascular coagulation.