 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Taking aspiring while you're pregnant could keep you from getting pre-eclampsia.
New research from Australia shows women who took aspirin or other anti-platelet drugs during pregnancy are at lower risk of the condition.
Text Continues Below
Pre-eclampsia affects about 5 to 8 percent of pregnancies. It is characterized by high blood pressure and too much protein in the urine.
Researchers analyzed the data of 32,000 women and their babies from previous trials. They found the risks of developing pre-eclampsia, delivering before 34 weeks, and having a pregnancy with severe adverse outcomes dropped by 10 percent in women who took aspirin or other anti-platelet drugs.
But an accompanying comment says each individual mother should look at the potential risks of aspirin before taking it during pregnancy.
"There are certain settings in which pre-eclampsia is almost a certainty, including women with pre-eclampsia in more than one pregnancy or women with chronic hypertension and pre-eclampsia in a previous pregnancy. In these settings, aspirin is justified," write researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "In the more usual setting of risk at about 20 percent, as in chronic hypertension, multiple gestations, pre-pregnancy diabetes or pre-eclampsia in one previous pregnancy, whether benefits outweigh theoretical long term risks is more difficult to judge."
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The Lancet, published online May 16, 2007
|
.gif)
