The natural history and remote prognosis of hypertension in pregnancy is controversial. A
principal reason for this situation is that it is difficult to distinguish the different etiological
categories (preeclampsia, essential or secondary hypertension, and renal disease) on the
basis of clinical criteria alone. The scope of this problem is underscored in several studies in
which renal biopsies performed on women considered “toxemic” during gestation
demonstrated glomerular endotheliosis (the lesion char-acteristic of preeclampsia) in only …