Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Nephrol. Sep 6, 2016; 5(5): 418-428
Published online Sep 6, 2016. doi: 10.5527/wjn.v5.i5.418
Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy
Casey Berry, Mohamed G Atta
Casey Berry, Mohamed G Atta, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States
Author contributions: Berry C performed the majority of the writing, prepared the figures and tables; Atta MG performed provided the input and design in writing the paper in addition to final editing of paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None to disclose in association with this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mohamed G Atta, MD, MPH, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1830 E. Monument Street, Suite 416, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States. matta1@jhmi.edu
Telephone: +1-410-9555268 Fax: +1-410-3672258
Received: April 27, 2016
Peer-review started: April 29, 2016
First decision: May 17, 2016
Revised: May 31, 2016
Accepted: June 27, 2016
Article in press: June 29, 2016
Published online: September 6, 2016
Processing time: 126 Days and 11.6 Hours
Abstract

Renal injury or failure may occur in the context of pregnancy requiring special considerations with regard to fetal and maternal health. The condition of pregnancy itself may be a major factor in such injuries. In addition, for many young women previously known to be healthy, pregnancy may be the first presentation for routine urine and blood testing which may yield previously subclinical renal disease. As such, pregnancy may add complexity to considerations in the management of renal disease presenting coincidentally requiring knowledge of the physiologic changes and potential renal disorders that may be encountered during pregnancy.

Keywords: Pregnancy; Hypertension; Preeclampsia; Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets

Core tip: Kidney disease and particularly complications of hypertensive disorders is one of the dire threats to successful pregnancy. This review highlights advances in our understanding of the pathophysiological processes that drive the development of hypertensive disorders’ complications during pregnancy, potential use of biomarkers in predicting these complications, and novel therapeutic approaches under consideration for their great promise in achieving successful pregnancy.