title: [Ming of the presence of schistocytes in blood smear of preeclamptic pregnant women].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to evaluate the significance of schistocytes' presence in peripheral blood smear of pregnant women with pre-eclampsia, identifying and correlating them with other markers of hemolysis and of the disease severity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventh six glass slides of peripheral blood smear of pregnant women with pre-eclampsia have been evaluated. After the smear, the slides have been stained with Leishman's dye and stored till they were examined with a Leica, model DLMB microscope, provided with the Qwin Lite 2.5 software that made it possible to record the images of selected fields in CD-ROM. Ten fields with approximately 100 erythrocytes were counted in each glass slide. Schistocytes (irregular fragment or helmet-shaped, bite-shaped or triangular) were considered as present, when their percentage was equal or higher than 0.2%, their presence being correlated with other hemolysis markers (hemoglobin, total bilirubin, lactic desidrogenasis and reticulocytes), pre-eclampsia markers (proteinuria and platelet number). The Statistical Package in Social Science for Windows (SPSS), 10.0 version has been used for statistical analysis, at p<0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  schistocytes have been present in 31.6% of the pregnant women with pre-eclampsia. In most (75%) of the blood smears there have been three or four schistocytes. There has been no correlation between schistocyte presence and any other hemolysis marker, any pre-eclampsia marker or disease severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  schistocytes have been identified in a small number and in less than a third of the pregnant women with pre-eclampsia. There has been no correlation with other hemolysis marker parameters or with the disease severity. This way, the presence of schistocytes is not a marker of the clinical evolution of pre-eclampsia.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Ginecologia, Obstetrícia e Mastologia, Departamento de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rosângela de Fátima do
authors.initials: Rde F
authors.lastname: Nascimento e Silva
authors.forename: Lucilene Silva
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Ruiz e Resende
authors.forename: Bruno Rabelo
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: Joélcio Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Abbade
authors.forename: José Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Peraçoli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult