PARTIAL HYDATIDIFORM MOLAR PREGNANCY PRESENTING WITH SEVERE PREECLAMPSIA PRIOR TO 20 WEEKS GESTATION - A CASE-REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A previously healthy 37-year-old Latin American female presented at 17 6/7 weeks gestation with clinical manifestations of preeclampsia. Ult rasound revealed a growth-retarded fetus with hypoechoic bowel, a thic kened cystic placenta, bilateral multicystic adnexal masses, and oligo hydramnios. The patient had laboratory evidence of hyperthyroidism and the maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein was 12.3 multiples of the mean. Subclinical disseminated intravascular coagulation rapidly ensued and an induction of labor was performed. This was productive of a 110-g fe male fetus with a markedly distended abdomen and syndactyly. The place nta weighed 650 g with gross hydropic changes throughout. The clinical aspects of this case and review of the literature on partial molar pr egnancies will be discussed.