Life-threatening endocrine emergencies during pregnancy–management and therapeutic features

Endocrine emergencies during pregnancy may be life-threatening events for both mother and fetus. Besides pregnancy-associated endocrine disorders, several pre-existing endocrinopathies such as type-1 diabetes and Grave’s disease or adrenal failure may acutely deteriorate during pregnancy. Since “classical” signs are often modified by pregnancy, early diagnosis and management may be hampered. In addition, laboratory tests show altered physiologic ranges and pharmacologic options are limited while therapeutic goals are mostly tighter than in the non-pregnant patient. Though subclinical endocrinopathies are more frequent and worth consideration due to their related adverse sequelae, this article focuses on endocrine emergencies complicating pregnancy.