Objective: Eclampsia is thought to have no long-term neurological consequences. We aimed to delineate the neurostructural sequelae of eclampsia, in particular brain white matter lesions, utilizing high-resolution 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Study design: Formerly eclamptic women were matched for age and year of index pregnancy with normotensive parous controls. The presence and volume of brain white matter lesions were compared between the groups.
Results: MRI scans of 39 women who formerly had eclampsia and 29 control women were performed on average 6.4 +/- 5.6 years following the index pregnancy at a mean age of 38 years. Women with eclampsia demonstrated subcortical white matter lesions more than twice as often as compared with controls (41% vs 17 %; odds ratio, 3.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-10.61; P = .04).
Conclusion: Cerebral white matter lesions occur more often in women who formerly had eclampsia compared with women with normotensive pregnancies. The exact pathophysiology underlying these imaging changes and their clinical relevance remain to be elucidated.