Pre-eclampsia affects the kidney both functionally and morphologically. Renal
haemodynamics decrease and urinary protein excretion increases, in part due to lesions
affecting the glomerulus, where a combination of changes produces a characteristic
appearance and permits differentiation of pre-eclamptic nephropathy from other glomerular
alterations associated with hypertension in pregnancy. In pre-eclampsia the glomerulus is
diffusely enlarged and bloodless, due not to proliferation, but to hypertrophy of the …