ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the strange effects of the pregnancy cycle, influencing capillary fragility and having a 4-weekly influence on the timing of the onset of abruptio placentae. Studying the records of 95 women with megaloblastic anemia of pregnancy at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, B. Hourihane et al. made the original observation of an increased incidence of abruptio placentae in these women. Accidental hemorrhage occurred in 14% of the patients with megaloglastic erythropoeisis compared with an incidence of only 2.5% for all women delivering at that hospital. An association between smoking and abruptio placentae was reported by M. B. Meyer et al. The association between low serum vitamin C levels and abruptio placentae which was found in the Vanderbilt study has been confirmed in this study of blood plasma samples. S. C. Sharma et al. have observed significantly lower than normal plasma levels of vitamin A and vitamin E in women with abruptio placentae.
