Flipping through the photographs of her newborn son, Karen Brown started to cry.

There was the proof that she had cradled Tyler two days after his birth, but she couldn't believe it.

The woman in the photographs was carrying almost 30 pounds of excess fluid. Her face was so swollen that she could barely open her eyes. “It didn't look like me,” Brown says. “It was hard to believe how sick I really was.”

Her unrecognizable appearance was brought on by preeclampsia, a syndrome marked mostly by high blood pressure, fluid retention and protein in the urine during pregnancy.

The condition, which can be life-threatening for both mother and baby, occurs in 5 percent of all pregnancies. For mothers-to-be, it is the leading cause of death.

In Brown's case, it was severe enough to put her life in danger. Doctors had to induce labor, and Tyler was born seven weeks early. Brown went into congestive heart failure.

“You just don't know how scary and bad it can be,” she says.

Symptoms Slow or Sudden

Researchers do not know exactly what causes preeclampsia, which is sometimes called toxemia. Some women have severe symptoms that come on suddenly. For other mothers, the condition progresses slowly.

Those symptoms may include severe headaches, vomiting and nausea, smaller amounts of urine or no urine at all, excessive swelling of the feet and hands, abdominal pain and distorted vision. If it progresses to eclampsia, women suffer seizures and convulsions.

In milder cases, bed rest may be the recommended course of treatment. There also are medications that can help mothers-to-be control their high blood pressure. Delivering the baby appears to be the only cure, though. This is why preeclampsia accounts for 15 percent of premature births in the United States.

Vitamin Research Shows Promise

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston is one of 14 U.S. sites that are conducting a National Institutes of Health study to evaluate how to reduce the frequency of serious maternal and infant complications associated with pregnancy-related hypertension.

A multivitamin could be just what the doctor orders. In a clinical trial, investigators are trying to determine whether antioxidants play a role in preventing or reducing the severity of preeclampsia.

Dr. Susan Ramin, director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division at UT Medical School, says 10,000 women are being enrolled in the study. Half are taking 1000 mg of vitamin C and 400 IU of vitamin E daily. The other half are given a placebo. They can take these supplements in addition to their regular prenatal vitamins.

“Preeclampsia is very prevalent,” Ramin says. “In developing countries, it accounts for 50 to 80 percent of maternal deaths. We need to find a way to prevent it, because currently, the only way to treat it is to deliver the baby, which is a problem if preeclampsia occurs early in the pregnancy.”

There is evidence, Ramin says, that the cycle of preeclampsia begins with highly reactive and unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals. Generated by our bodies, free radicals can damage other cells and lead to ailments such as cancer and heart disease. Oxidative stress and abnormal implantation of the placenta lead to pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. If antioxidants counter this process, it may prevent preeclampsia.

Andrea Dvorachek, one of the research participants, says that after witnessing the problems her sister-in-law had with preeclampsia, she was eager to enroll in the study. “Her blood pressure was so high, and they had to induce labor a month early,” Dvorachek says. “Knowing personally how it can impact a woman and the birth of her child, I wanted to participate in this study. I had to take two big pills every day, but it was worth it,” Dvorachek says. “Hopefully the study will find that these vitamins help prevent preeclampsia.”

Dvorachek doesn't know if the pills she took were the antioxidants or the placebo, but she had no problems with her pregnancy. She had a safe delivery, and her daughter, Hannah, arrived a week early.

The five-year study began in April 2003, and Ramin says pregnant women will continue to be enrolled through 2008. The results could be released as soon as early 2009.

“If the results of this study are positive, then preeclampsia may be decreased or even prevented in women worldwide,” Ramin says.

Last Updated: 5-03-2005

 

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