Small doses of aspirin will help with hypertension of pregnant women
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Up to 8% of pregnant women face a dangerous disease - preeclampsia (hypertension of pregnant women), during which a high level of protein is fixed in the urine, and a woman suffers from high blood pressure. Experts from the United States of America believe that this pathology can be cured with small doses of aspirin. Such therapy is indicated for all women who are at risk.
Already, the corresponding recommendations have been issued to gynecologists, based on more than twenty different studies.
In all experiments, the researchers proved that taking aspirin from the twelfth week of pregnancy every day reduces the likelihood of occurrence of preeclampsia by 24%. In addition, aspirin helps prevent other pathologies of pregnancy due to preeclampsia (14% probability of premature birth, 20% risk of intrauterine growth retardation).
Before prescribing small doses of aspirin to pregnant women at risk, the specialist should make sure that in the past, the woman did not have any negative side reactions to aspirin. Physicians from the United States recommend taking no more than 81 grams per day, starting with the fourth month of pregnancy.
Another group of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh found that vitamin D deficiency in the first 26 weeks of pregnancy increases the risk of pre-eclampsia. Some pregnant women also suffer from severe swelling, headaches, visual impairment, tenderness in the ribs.
Vitamin D plays an important role during pregnancy, its lack can provoke gestational diabetes, low birth weight, increased risk of infections, and the need for caesarean section. About the connection between vitamin D deficiency and pre-eclampsia, experts stated after the study of blood samples of more than three thousand women, 700 of whom subsequently developed a pathological condition.
If vitamin D deficiency is absent in the first 26 weeks of pregnancy, a woman has a 40% chance of developing severe pre-eclampsia. But the relationship between the level of vitamin D and the average form of pre-eclampsia was not revealed by the scientists. As experts believe, the possible cause of the development of a pathological condition lies in the fact that different forms of pre-eclampsia can be provoked by different sources. But doctors continue to work in this direction and are trying to understand whether it is possible to cure the severe form of pre-eclampsia with a complex of vitamin supplements.
In addition, recently, specialists have developed a test that, by analysis of urine, will help determine whether a pregnant woman has preeclampsia at week 26. Currently, there is no analogue of this test and doctors diagnose pre-eclampsia by symptoms. However, in some cases, pathology can develop secretly, which threatens both the life of a woman and her child. From the average form of pre-eclampsia, about 10% of women suffer during pregnancy, from more severe - about 2%.
Pre-eclampsia leads to increased blood pressure, increased protein levels in urine, and fluid retention in the body. This pathological condition can lead to a stroke or coma. In the world, 80,000 deaths of women from preeclampsia have been recorded. For a child, preeclampsia in the mother can provoke cerebral palsy, epilepsy, deafness, blindness, lung disease, more than 50,000 children die as a result of pathology.
The work of the new test is based on biomarkers, which determine a particular type of protein in the kidney cells.
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