Sodium-Lithium Countertransport in Erythrocytes of Pregnant Women

To the Editor: The report by Worley et al. (August 12 issue) 1 describing increased sodium–lithium countertransport in the erythrocytes of pregnant women parallels a recent study of ours. We studied three groups of women in the third trimester of pregnancy and six weeks after delivery: 18 women with pre-eclampsia, 14 women with essential hypertension, and women with uncomplicated pregnancies who were matched for gestation and parity with the women in the other two groups. We measured three aspects of erythrocyte cation transport: the ability of erythrocyte membranes to bind [ 3 H]digoxin specifically (as a measure of the numbers of . . .