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Aspirin's safety in pregnancy questioned.


A new study fails to support the belief that aspirin can safely prevent high blood pressure during most pregnancies.

Previous research had indicated that daily aspirin use could prevent preeclampsia--dangerously high blood pressure that can occur during gestation--in pregnant women at high risk of this condition (SN: 7/13/91, p.22).

Those results led some doctors to prescribe a baby aspirin baby aspirin Therapeutics A popular term for a formulation that contains 81 or less mg of aspirin, used to ↓ blood coagulability. See Aspirin.  a day for pregnant patients, even those at relatively low risk of the hypertensive hypertensive /hy·per·ten·sive/ (-ten´siv)
1. characterized by increased tension or pressure.

2. an agent that causes hypertension.

3. a person with hypertension.
 disorder. Despite that trend, no one had ever studied aspirin's safety and efficacy in these low-risk pregnancies.

The new research, detailed in the Oct. 21 NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. , suggests that the risks of aspirin use may outweigh any blood pressure benefits -- at least for most pregnant women.

A team of investigators at medical centers across the country randomly assigned 3,315 healthy women pregnant with their first child into two groups. Women in one group received a low dose of aspirin (approximately one baby aspirin) each day, while volunteers in the control group got dummy pills.

The researchers the monitored the pregnancies, checking each recruit's blood pressure and urine samples.

The team discovered that preeclampsia preeclampsia /pre·eclamp·sia/ (pre?e-klamp´se-ah) a toxemia of late pregnancy, characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and edema.

pre·e·clamp·si·a
n.
 occurred 4.6 percent of the time in the aspirin group and 6.3 percent of the time in the control group. They concluded that aspirin did lower the risk of preeclampsia, but the benefit was small.

Aspirin's value appeared to be limited to one very specific group of women -- those who had entered the study with a systolic blood pressure Systolic blood pressure
Blood pressure when the heart contracts (beats).

Mentioned in: Hypertension
 that was slightly elevated although still within the normal range.

For most women, aspirin proved far from risk-free. The team found that women in the aspirin group faced an increased risk of abruptio placentae ab·rup·ti·o pla·cen·tae
n.
The premature detachment of a normally situated placenta.


abruptio placentae Ablatio placentae, abruptio, premature separation of placenta Obstetrics The premature separation of the placenta
, a life-threatening condition for mother and fetus in which the placenta separates from the uterus.

"Based on our results in this study ... we recommend that low-dose aspirin not be used as a prophylactic in first-time pregnant women," says study coauthor Robert C. Cefalo of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Also known as The University of North Carolina, Carolina, North Carolina, or simply UNC .
COPYRIGHT 1993 Science Service, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1993, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:risks of aspirin to pregnant woman outweigh its benefits in preventing preeclampsia
Publication:Science News
Article Type:Brief Article
Date:Nov 6, 1993
Words:340
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