Women who suffer from a pregnancy complication called preeclampsia have low concentrations of the chemical prostacyclin in their blood weeks before symptoms appear.

Mills, J.L., et al. 1999. Prostacyclin and thromboxane changes predating clinical onset of preeclampsia. Journal of the American Medical Association 282(July 28):956.

Barden, A., et al. 1994. Plasma and urinary endothelin 1 prostacyclin metabolites and platelet consumption in pre-eclampsia and essential hypertensive pregnancy. Blood Press 3:38.

Caritis, S., et al. 1998. Low-dose aspirin to prevent preeclampsia in women at high risk. New England Journal of Medicine 338:701.

James L. Mills
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Pediatric Epidemiology Section
6100 Executive Boulevard
Room 7803
Rockville, MD 20892

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 7, August 14, 1999, p. 111. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.