To the Editor.
—I believe that Ericson and her colleagues (Arch Intern Med128:448-452, 1971) do not give sufficient emphasis to the possible benefits of the early use of heparin in postpartum renal failure of obscure origin and with microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. We have recently described a case1 very similar to that reported in which the early use of heparin, in a situation of apparently severe and progressive renal failure, produced a rapid return of renal function to satisfactory levels. The patient has remained well with good renal function and repeated renal biopsy showed no evidence of progressive renal disease.2 In all of the previously described cases of this type of postpartum renal failure the patients have either died or developed severe progressive renal disease; none received heparin in the early stages of their illness. There is other evidence to support the early use of heparin in