International Digest

ASA therapy and pre-eclampsia

Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 155: 428

Source: ECPPA (Estudo Colaborativo para Prevenção da Pré-eclampsia com Aspirina) Collaborative Group. ECPPA: randomised trial of low dose aspirin for the prevention of maternal and fetal complications in high risk pregnant women. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1996; 103: 39-47.

In a multicentre trial researchers in Brazil randomly assigned 1009 pregnant women considered to be at high risk for pre-eclampsia and its complications to receive low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA; 60 mg/d) or a placebo from between 12 and 32 weeks of gestation until delivery. Even when divided into subgroups according to gestational age at initiation of therapy, parity and evidence of chronic hypertension, the ASA group showed no significant reductions compared with the placebo group in the incidence of proteinuric pre-eclampsia, preterm delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, stillbirths and neonatal deaths. There were also no significant differences between the treatment and placebo groups in the incidence of cesarean and forceps deliveries or of maternal and fetal bleeding.

| CMAJ August 15, 1996 (vol 155, no 4) |