The Nature of the Tissue Fluid in the Oedema of Toxaemia of Pregnancy.

Very little is known about the nature of the tissue fluid in the oedema of pregnancy toxaemia. Most investigators (Dieckmann, 1942; Taylor, Warner, and Welsh, 1939; Chesley and Chesley, 1943) believe that the abnormal water balance in this condition is caused by a combination of several factors, both mechanical and physico-chemical in nature. There is general acceptance of the fact that the oedema in toxaemias of pregnancy is brought about by a retention of sodium chloride in the tissues, and some observers (Taylor et al., 1939) suggest that this is connected with an oestrogen excess which accompanies pregnancy. No attempt has, however, been made to study the properties of the oedema fluid and to determine if in preeclamptic oedema the normal physico-chemical equilibrium between the plasma and tissue fluid is in any way disturbed.