Table 3.

Comparison of features of disorders with thrombocytopenia and microangiopathy in pregnancy.^{7,19,32–36,38,39}

	Pre-eclampsia	HELLP syndrome	Catastrophic antiphospholipid antibody syndrome	Acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency-mediated TMA	Complement-mediated TMA
Timing	After 20 weeks’ gestation	Predominantly third trimester and within 48 hours postpartum	Anytime, may be precipitated by infections and medications	Frequently in the second trimester and third trimester	Predominantly postpartum
Hypertension	Present	Predominantly present	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present/absent
Proteinuria	Predominantly present	Predominantly present	Absent	Absent	Present/absent
Abdominal Pain	Present in severe disease	Often present	Absent	Absent	Absent
Neurologic symptoms	Present in severe disease	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present/absent	Uncommon
Renal involvement	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present
Liver enzymes	Elevated/normal	Elevated	Normal	Elevated/normal	Normal
Haemolysis	Present or absent	Present	Present/absent	Present/absent	Present
Treatment	Delivery	Delivery	Heparin corticosteroids ± IVIG ± plasma exchange	Plasma exchange/plasma infusion and immune suppression	Anticomplement agent and plasma infusion/exchange

Note: ADAMTS13: A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 13; DIC: disseminated intravascular coagulation; HELLP: haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets; IVIG: intravenous immune globulin; TMA: thrombotic microangiopathy.