Increased Sodium-Lithium Countertransport in Erythrocytes of Pregnant Women

TWO groups of investigators 1 , 2 have shown that erythrocyte sodium–lithium countertransport is higher in patients with essential hypertension than in normotensive subjects. These observations prompted us to investigate sodium–lithium countertransport in normal and hypertensive pregnant women to ascertain whether the relation between cation flux in these two groups of subjects was similar to the observed difference between normal and hypertensive nonpregnant women. We reasoned that if countertransport in women with ppregnancy-induced hypertension differed from that in normal pregnant women, prospective measurement of cation flux during pregnancy might lead to a useful technique of identifying incipient ppregnancy-induced hypertension. Differences in counter-transport between . . .