Anticogulant Prevents Stillbirth in Pregnant Women

French researchers have found that an anticoagulant called enoxaparin is an effective preventive measure against stillbirth in pregnant women with hereditary thrombophilia. Their findings were published in the May 15, 2004, issue of Blood.

Thrombophilia increases the risk of stillbirth because it interrupts the normal circulation of blood from the mother to the placenta. The researchers studied 160 pregnant women with genetic risk factors for thrombophilia who had experienced one unexplained stillbirth at 10 weeks gestation or later, prior to the study. Treatment was begun in the eighth week of the new pregnancy in 80 women. The other 80 women were given low-dose aspirin, and all were given 5 mg of folic acid a day as an additional preventive measure.

The results showed that of the women who took the anticoagulant, 86% had a normal live birth, with no significant side effects in the mothers or newborns. Women in the group of 80 taking aspirin, however, suffered 57 pregnancy losses, with only 29% having a successful birth. The babies of the women taking the anticoagulant also weighed more than those born to the mothers taking aspirin.

"For women with a prior pregnancy loss and a genetic predisposition to thrombophilia, treatment with enoxaparin is associated with a much greater chance of live birth and a normal-weight baby, without adverse side effects,” said lead author Jean-Christophe Gris, M.D., Ph.D., of the University Hospital in Nimes (France), who conducted the study along with colleagues from the University Hospital and the University of Montpellier (also in France).