Recognizing stroke is a life or death issue.(THE MASTER CLASS)

In high-risk obstetrics, we are faced with a variety of critical presentations: threatened early pregnancy loss, pregnant patients with preexisting medical conditions, and the development of acute medical complications during pregnancy.

Fortunately, the most serious complications of pregnancy--seizures, myocardial infarctions, and cerebrovascular events--are rare.

Despite their infrequency, we must become sufficiently familiar with the presenting symptoms of these life-threatening complications of pregnancy to be able to employ our clinical skills at a moment's notice.

Recent advances in stroke management make quick action vital. Medications or surgery not only may save the lives of the woman and fetus, but may preserve brain function in the woman as well.

Very often, but not always, clues to the possibility of a stroke may lie in the woman's medical history of hypertension, preeclampsia, seizures, or a ...