Associated Press
LONDON — Giving injections of magnesium sulfate to expectant mothers who have pre-eclampsia can halve their risk of dangerous seizures and save their lives, a major new study has found.
The results were so impressive that the ethics board overseeing the research stopped the study early because it would have been unethical to deprive the women who were not getting the treatment.
Pre-eclampsia, characterized by a sudden increase in blood pressure in late pregnancy, is one of the most dangerous and baffling complications of pregnancy.
The only treatment until now has been to induce delivery of the baby in hopes it can be born before the mother develops seizures, called eclampsia.
Doctors in the United States have been using magnesium sulfate, commonly known as Epsom salts, to treat pre-eclampsia for decades, but without reliable evidence that it works or that it does more good than harm.
Experts called the findings, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, definitive.
Worldwide, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia occur in about 10 percent of pregnant women and account for about 12 percent of pregnancy-related deaths, the World Health Organization estimates.
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