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Low-Dose Aspirin Continues to Prove Effective in Reducing Onset of Preeclampsia

A new study recently published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that women at high risk for preterm preeclampsia who took aspirin were less likely to develop the condition than women who were given a placebo.

Women from 13 different hospitals in seven different countries, who had been identified in their first trimesters as high risk for developing preeclampsia, were randomly prescribed either 150 mg of aspirin or a placebo pill.

In this double blind, prospective study, the aspirin or placebo were administered from 11 to 14 weeks of gestation until 36 weeks in women who were at high risk for preeclampsia.

Study results found that 1.6 percent of the women taking the 150 mg dose of aspirin developed preterm preeclampsia, while 4.3 percent of the women taking the placebo developed the life-threatening disorder.

Why it Matters: Preeclampsia is a critical contributing factor to the loss of mothers and babies during childbirth. As maternal mortality rates continue to rise in the United States, there is increased pressure to find effective treatments for women who are at-risk for preeclampsia. This study is the largest of its kind, including 1,776 randomly assigned women from seven different countries. The study also used the European dose of 150 mg, which is almost twice the United States recommended dose of 81 mg. This helps narrow down the effective dose to prescribe and at which point in gestation beginning an aspirin regimen is helpful.

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