Tay J, et al. - A prospective cohort study was undertaken to investigate maternal cardiovascular function in relation to clinical subtype in 45 pathological pregnancies (14 ‘Pre-eclampsia (PE) only’, 16 ‘fetal growth restriction (FGR) only’, 15 ‘PE and FGR’). Researchers, in addition, performed a comparison of these with 107 healthy person observations. They recognized an association of PE with high cardiac output (CO), but if PE presented with FGR, the opposite was true; although both conditions are defined by hypertension. FGR without PE was linked with high peripheral vascular resistance (PVR). Despite the consideration of 'early' and 'late' gestation PE as different diseases, findings here suggested that the haemodynamic characteristics of PE were unrelated to gestation age at onset, but strongly correlated with the presence or absence of FGR. A more common co-existence of FGR with PE at early gestation was observed. Moreover, anti-hypertensive agents act by reducing CO or PVR and are administered without reference to cardiovascular function in PE. The underlying pathology (PE, FGR, PE and FGR) seemed to define the cardiovascular phenotype, thereby providing a rational basis for the choice of therapy where high or low CO or PVR are the predominant features.