[The autonomic nervous system and pre-eclampsia].

Alterations in the autonomic cardiovascular control have been implicated to play an important etiologic role in preeclampsia. Earlier assessments of sympathetic nervous system activity by measurements of urinary and plasma levels of catecholamines showed contradictory results, due to serious methodological problems. The microneurographic technique enables the assessment of sympathetic outflow to the vascular bed of skeletal muscles. By the use of this technique it has been shown that preeclampsia represents a state of sympathetic overactivity as compared to healthy pregnant women. Other studies have shown that exogenous stimulation of the celiac ganglion causes a HELLP-syndrome-like disease in pregnant rats and that preeclamptic human plasma increases norepinephrine release in isolated sympathetic neurons of chicken embryos. These data suggest that the autonomic nervous system may play a fundamental role in the etiology of preeclampsia.