Changes in Blood Values during Pregnancy and the Relation of Protein Levels to Toxemia Symptoms

Abstract

in the blood during pregnancy must be considered in relation to the well-known increase in plasma volume. Therefore, as a background for this report on hematological values and serum protein levels obtained for prenatal ward patients in the Study on The Relation of Nutrition to Pregnancy, now in progress at the Pennsylvania Hospital, some data will be presented from two studies on the increase in plasma volume during pregnancy. In a recent report, Caton and others (1) published for ten patients at the Boston Lying-In Hospital the results of serial observations on prenatal and postpartum plasma volume and volume of red blood cells (hematocrit). Of these, one was a mild pre-eclamptic and one had a premature birth. From the estimates of total plasma volume for the eight presumably normal cases reported at four to seven antepartum periods for each patient and a postpartum value taken 26 to 66 days after delivery, the average per cent by which the antepartum plasma volume exceded the postpartum volume was calculated for six different antepartum periods.3 The estimated curve for