Circulating immune complexes in hypertensive disease of pregnancy.

Circulating immune complexes in the blood of patients with hypertensive diseases of pregnancy were investigated. Sixty women with pregnancies between 30 and 40 weeks were studied. Of these patients, 22 were normal, 18 developed preeclampsia, 2 developed eclampsia, 14 had essential hypertension, and four had hypertension of renal origin. Circulating immune complexes were determined by the method of phagocytosis and immunofluorescence. They were found only in patients with preeclampsia or eclampsia, and were constituted of IgG and C3. It is suggested that the detection of circulating immune complexes by this method can be useful in the differential diagnosis of preeclampsia from other hypertensive diseases of pregnancy.