High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy Tied to Newborn Heart Defects
But researchers stress the risk is still very low when women have pre-eclampsia
TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Babies born to moms with a pregnancy complication called pre-eclampsia may have a heightened risk of heart defects, a large new study finds.
The Canadian researchers stressed that the risk is still very low: More serious heart defects were seen in only about 0.1 percent of newborns whose mothers had pre-eclampsia.
And the findings, reported Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, do not prove that pre-eclampsia actually causes those heart problems.
Instead, the results suggest that pre-eclampsia and congenital heart defects share some underlying biological causes, explained Dr. Siobhan Dolan, medical advisor to the nonprofit March of Dimes.
"That's why this study is important," said Dolan, who is also a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.
Dr. Nathalie Auger, the lead researcher on the study, agreed.