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WORLD / Health
Low vitamin D tied to serious pregnancy complication
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-14 03:27
NEW YORK?- Moms-to-be who have low vitamin D levels during pregnancy
appear to be at increased risk for suffering from pre-eclampsia,
according to a study.
Pre-eclampsia is a condition of pregnancy that usually begins with high
blood pressure. The disorder may also lead to seizures, kidney failure or
stroke. It slows the growth of the fetus, can cause early delivery, and
can be fatal for the mother and the infant. The cause is unknown and
there is no treatment, except to manage the symptoms.
In the new study, "women who developed pre-eclampsia had vitamin D
concentrations that were significantly lower early in pregnancy compared
to women whose pregnancies were normal," lead author Dr. Lisa M. Bodnar,
from the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement. "And even though
vitamin D deficiency was common in both groups, the deficiency was more
prevalent among those who went on to develop pre-eclampsia."
Vitamin D has been shown to influence pathways involved in the
development of pre-eclampsia, "yet the vitamin D/pre-eclampsia relation
has not been studied," Bodnar's team notes in their report.
To investigate, they measured vitamin D levels in banked sera from 55
pregnant women who developed pre-eclampsia and from 219 who did not.
The average 25-hydroxyvitamin D level for women who developed
pre-eclampsia was 45.4 nmol/L compared with 53.1 nmol/L in the control
group -- a significant difference.
Moreover, the risk of pre-eclampsia rose with decreasing levels of
vitamin D in early pregnancy, the authors found.
If the current findings are verified in other studies, the investigators
suggest, "Vitamin D supplementation in early pregnancy should be explored
as a safe and effective means of preventing pre-eclampsia and promoting
neonatal well-being."
SOURCE: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, September
2007.
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