title: [Late postpartum eclampsia, myth or reality?].
abstract: It has never been formally established whether eclampsia can come on more than 48 hours after delivery. We report a case of a patient who had convulsions together with transitory raised blood pressure coming on 14 days after her delivery. MRI was carried out 24 hours after the attack and showed pathological sub-cortical images and there was a hyper signal at T2. This is now a well known feature and has been described in the course of typical eclampsia fits. On the other hand MRI is able to eliminate a certain number of differential diagnoses such as cerebral thrombophlebitis, cerebral vascular accidents and tumours. A cerebral blood flow study and a trans-cranial Doppler flow study showed (as far as we know for the first time) a lessening in perfusion and in speed of flow giving rise to lowered blood circulation in that part of the brain and suggestive of vascular spasm. This observation makes it very likely that eclamptic crises can occur two weeks after delivery and favours a vascular spasm being the origin of these crises.
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Hôpital Sainte-Anne, Paris.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Richer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mouligner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dilouya
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vige
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Recondo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D002533:Cerebral Angiography / Q000592:standards; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000592:standards; D011247:Pregnancy; D011644:Puerperal Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000592:standards
vernacular_title: Eclampsie tardive du post-partum, mythe ou réalité?