Preterm delivery, low birth weight and neonatal risk in pregnant women with high blood pressure

Data looked at nearly 800,000 pregnancies across the world

2014-04-16

(Press-News.org) Pregnant women with chronic hypertension (high blood pressure) are highly likely to suffer from adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm delivery, low birth weight and neonatal death, which highlights a need for heightened surveillance, suggests a paper published on bmj.com today.

Chronic hypertension complicates between 1-5% of pregnancies, and the problem may be increasing because of changes in the antenatal population.

A recent study in the US suggests the prevalence of chronic hypertension increased from 1995-1996 to 2007-2008, after adjustment for maternal age. Obesity and metabolism are likely to contribute and therefore the number of women entering pregnancy with chronic hypertension is set to rise.

Researchers from King's College London carried out a study to assess the strength of evidence linking chronic hypertension with poor pregnancy outcomes. They combined data from studies from 55 studies done in 25 countries.

The researchers looked at the following outcomes: preterm delivery (delivery before 37 weeks' gestation); low birth weight (below 2500g); perinatal death (fetal death after 20 weeks' gestation including stillbirth and neonatal death up to one month) and admission to neonatal intensive care or special care baby units.

The relative risk of pre-eclampsia (a condition in pregnancy characterised by high blood pressure) in women with chronic hypertension was on average nearly eight times higher than pre-eclampsia in non-hypertensive women. All adverse neonatal outcomes were at least twice as likely to occur, compared with the general population.

The researchers conclude that "chronic hypertension is associated with a high incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes compared with a general population". They stress the importance of increased antenatal surveillance for women with chronic hypertension and suggest they should receive pre-pregnancy counselling to optimise their health prior to pregnancy. They also say that strategies to predict those at greatest risk are needed.

In an accompanying editorial, Doctors Clausen and Bergholt from the University of Copenhagen say that pre-gestational hypertension has attracted little attention from researchers and when asked what clinicians can do about this growing problem, the "simple and depressing answer is 'not much'". They say Chappell et al's review adds important knowledge and the findings may "prove to be extremely useful". They conclude that "we still do not know the most effective, safe and cost effective way to manage it" and an "urgent need remains for research to establish best clinical practice".

INFORMATION: Research: Chronic hypertension and pregnancy outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis

Editorial: Chronic hypertension during pregnancy

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The Lancet: Functional brain imaging reliably predicts which vegetative patients have potential to recover consciousness

2014-04-16

A functional brain imaging technique known as positron emission tomography (PET) is a promising tool for determining which severely brain damaged individuals in vegetative states have the potential to recover consciousness, according to new research published in The Lancet. It is the first time that researchers have tested the diagnostic accuracy of functional brain imaging techniques in clinical practice. "Our findings suggest that PET imaging can reveal cognitive processes that aren't visible through traditional bedside tests, and could substantially complement standard ...

Research gives new insights into rare disease of the inner ear

2014-04-16

A new study has shed light on the factors likely to lead to the development of a rare condition affecting the inner ear. In the most comprehensive study of Ménière's Disease to date, researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School have been able to suggest what goes wrong in the body when people develop the disease, and provide an insight into factors that lead to its development. Ménière's Disease can cause tinnitus, hearing loss, vertigo attacks and a feeling of pressure deep within the ear. Yet as a long term but non-fatal illness, it has received little attention ...

Antibiotics improve growth in children in developing countries

2014-04-16

Antibiotics improve growth in children at risk of undernourishment in low and middle income countries, according to researchers at McGill University who have just conducted a research literature review on the subject. Their results, published in the British Medical Journal, suggest that the youngest children from the most vulnerable populations benefit most and show significant improvements toward expected growth for their age and sex, particularly for weight. Malnutrition in early childhood, reflected in poor growth, is the cause of nearly half of all mortality worldwide ...

Mouse model would have predicted toxicity of drug that killed 5 in 1993 clinical trial

2014-04-16

Over 20 years after the fatal fialuridine trial, a study published this week in PLOS Medicine demonstrates that mice with humanized livers recapitulate the drug's toxicity. The work suggests that this mouse model should be added to the repertoire of tools used in preclinical screening of drugs for liver toxicity before they are given to human participants in clinical trials. A retrospective analysis by the US National Academy of Sciences of all preclinical fialuridine toxicity tests, which included studies in mice, rats, dogs, and monkeys, concluded that the available ...

Teenagers who have had a concussion also have higher rates of suicide attempts

2014-04-16

TORONTO, April 15, 2014—Teenagers who have suffered a traumatic brain injury such as a concussion are at "significantly greater odds" of attempting suicide, being bullied and engaging in a variety of high risk behaviours, a new study has found. They are also more likely to become bullies themselves, to have sought counselling through a crisis help-line or to have been prescribed medication for anxiety, depression or both, said Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital. They have higher odds of damaging property, breaking ...

Groundbreaking nationwide study finds that people of color live in neighborhoods with more air pollution than whites

2014-04-16

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (04/15/2014) — A first-of-its-kind study by researchers at the University of Minnesota found that on average nationally, people of color are exposed to 38 percent higher levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) outdoor air pollution compared to white people. Nitrogen dioxide comes from sources like vehicle exhaust and power plants. Breathing NO2 is linked to asthma symptoms and heart disease. The Environmental Protection Agency has listed it as one of the seven key air pollutants it monitors. The researchers studied NO2 levels in urban areas across the ...

Brain changes are associated with casual marijuana use in young adults

2014-04-16

Washington, DC — The size and shape of two brain regions involved in emotion and motivation may differ in young adults who smoke marijuana at least once a week, according to a study published April 16 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest that recreational marijuana use may lead to previously unidentified brain changes, and highlight the importance of research aimed at understanding the long-term effects of low to moderate marijuana use on the brain. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, with an estimated 18.9 million people ...

Study finds new links between number of duplicated genes and adaptation

2014-04-16

Liken it to a case of where two genes are better than one. Scientists have found a class of genes, called small-scale duplication genes, or SSDs, that are important for adapting to novel environments and surviving environmental changes. Published in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, authors Takashi Makino, Masakado Kawata, et al., were the first to examine more than 30 fully sequenced vertebrate genomes to look at SSDs as genetic signposts that correlated with habitat variability. SSDs have been generated continually during evolution, and ...

New tool advances investigations of disease outbreaks

2014-04-16

To combat disease outbreaks, public health officials often use painstaking fieldwork to try to stay one step ahead of the infectious bugs, linking patients' symptoms to a source of infection to quickly identify the common culprit in related cases. Now, a new field called genomic epidemiology is taking advantage of the rapidly reduced costs of next-generation DNA sequencing to better inform public health officials faced with ongoing outbreaks. In the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, authors Didelot et al. developed a versatile computational ...

Brain anatomy differences between deaf, hearing depend on first language learned

2014-04-16

WASHINGTON – In the first known study of its kind, researchers have shown that the language we learn as children affects brain structure, as does hearing status. The findings are reported in the Journal of Neuroscience. While research has shown that people who are deaf and hearing differ in brain anatomy, these studies have been limited to studies of individuals who are deaf and use American Sign Language (ASL) from birth. But 95 percent of the deaf population in America is born to hearing parents and use English or another spoken language as their first language, usually ...

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Preterm delivery, low birth weight and neonatal risk in pregnant women with high blood pressure

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: