Asthma Increases Preeclampsia Risk

Pregnant women with moderate-to-severeasthma symptoms are more at riskfor developing preeclampsia, compared withwomen with no asthma symptoms, indicateda study reported in Obstetrics and Gynecology(September 2004). While a self-reporteddiagnosis of asthma does not increasethe risk of preeclampsia,active asthma symptoms throughoutpregnancy up the risk, noted the researchers.

For the study, the researchers followed1708 pregnant women, 656 with asthma and1052 without asthma. The investigators factoredin asthma treatment, medication use,obesity, age, and smoking early in pregnancy.The results showed that neither overallasthma severity nor having physician-diagnosedasthma was connected with the oddsof developing preeclampsia. On the otherhand, the frequency of asthma symptoms(wheeze, persistent cough, and chest tightness)during pregnancy was associated withthe risk of preeclampsia. The research alsoshowed that women with daily symptomswere 3 times more apt to develop preeclampsia,compared with women with noasthma symptoms.