title: Late onset postpartum eclampsia: a rare and difficult diagnosis.
abstract: Late postpartum eclampsia without the classical pre-eclamptic signs oedema, proteinuria and hypertension is a rarely noticed complication of pregnancy. In three patients eclampsia started no earlier than 6, 8 and 11 days postpartum. Seizures were preceded by headache, vomiting, visual disturbance or impaired level of consciousness. One patient suffered a series of seizures making neurointensive care necessary. In another patient the clinical course was complicated by an additional Guillain-Barré syndrome. Aside from the typical parieto-occipital lesions brain MRI showed cerebellar hyperintensities on T2 weighted sequences as well as abnormalities on diffusion weighted images in one patient. In all patients neurological deficits and MRI findings were reversible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, 48129 Münster, Germany. dziewas@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dziewas
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stögbauer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freund
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lüdemann
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Holzapfel
authors.forename: P Bernd
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Ringelstein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial / Q000379:methods