OBJECTIVE

To address the question whether maternal venous abnormalities exist at the onset of, or develop during the course of pregnancy.

METHODS

We present five case reports of patients with early onset preeclampsia (EPE), late onset preeclampsia (LPE), gestational hypertension (GH), essential hypertension (EH) and an uncomplicated pregnancy (UP). Maternal renal and hepatic vein Doppler waves and maternal venous pulse transit times (VPTT) were assessed in early pregnancy and again shortly before delivery.

RESULTS

In all cases, maternal VPTT were normal in early pregnancy and changed to abnormal values in EPE and LPE, which was not true for UP and GH or EH.

CONCLUSION

These observations support the view that venous hemodynamic dysfunction of preeclampsia (PE) develops during the course of pregnancy. Therefore, assessment of an individual's venous function for prediction of PE should be serial and longitudinal.