Total body water, sodium space, and total exchangeable sodium in normal and toxemic pregnant women

Abstract

1. Simultaneous measurements of sodium space and total body water as well as total exchangeable sodium have been made on a series of toxemic patients and the values compared with the range obtained for normal pregnant women near term.2. The relationship of total body water and body weight was found to be influenced by body build; i.e., lean pregnant women were found to have a higher (58.7 per cent body weight) and obese pregnant women a lower (45.4 per cent body weight) water content than the mean (53.3 per cent body weight). The ratio of sodium to water space showed no significant difference when lean, obese, and average normal pregnant patients were compared.3. The mean sodium space of pre-eclamptic patients with and without hypertensive vascular disease constitutes a significantly higher percentage (56.0) of the total body water than the corresponding mean for normal (49.5) and hypertensive patients without pre-eclampsia (50.0).4. The mean value for the total exchangeable sodium of pre-eclamptic patients is significantly higher (46.0 mEq. per kilogram) than that of normal pregnant patients (39.6 mEq. per kilogram) of comparable gestational age.5. Additional evidence has been presented that normal pregnant womendo not retain sodium beyond the limits for the nonpregnant state.