To the etiology of eclampsia

Abstract

Recently, several authors have suggested that lactalbumin produced by the mammary gland plays an important role in the etiology of eclampsia, and that eclampsia is an anaphylactic reaction to this foreign albumin circulating in the blood.

Full Text

Recently, several authors have suggested that lactalbumin produced by the mammary gland plays an important role in the etiology of eclampsia, and that eclampsia is an anaphylactic reaction to this foreign albumin circulating in the blood. Trying to prove this view, A. Nynd (Lancet, 1925, No. 5331) investigated albumin excreted in urine using the polarimetric method and determined the degree of polarimetric activity of this urinary albumin by the Kjeldal method; in addition, he determined the rotational capacity of human serum albumin and bovine milk albumin. As a result, the author came to the conclusion that lactalbumin produced by the mammary gland always enters the blood in small doses, and the body develops immunity to it. In the same cases, when immunity for some reason does not occur, or if large amounts of lactalbumin are received at once, anaphylaxis occurs in the form of eclamptic seizures.