Fetal death in eclampsia: II. The effect of non-therapeutic factors.

The ability of 15 variables to predict fetal death is examined among 173 eclamptic women admitted to the only public maternity hospital in Cali, Colombia, between 1st Janurary 1964 and 31st December 1970. In addition to low gestational age and retarded fetal growth, high systolic pressure and the unmarried status carried excess risk. Primiparae appeared to be of lower risk because their eclampsia tended to occur late in gestation and was characterized by less retarded fetal growth. Older women and women with a history of abortion appeared to be of higher risk because they tended to have higher systolic pressures. A discriminant function risk formula is presented which generated groups with a nine-fold difference in fetal death rates. This formula could be used to standardize for relevant non-therapeutic factors which meant vary between patient groups who had received different therapeutic regimens.