Uric Acid May Threaten Pregnancy

Pregnant women with hypertension who also have elevated levels of uric acid in their blood may have an increased risk of complications that could be fatal for both mother and baby, according to a study reported in the October 27, 2005, online issue of Hypertension.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (PA, USA) used a research database to find whether inclusion of uric acid levels in the diagnosis of preeclampsia would help them evaluate the risk for complications among pregnant women. They looked at the records for 972 pregnant women who were part of an ongoing preeclampsia study at the Magee-Women's Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh.

They found that women with both preeclampsia and elevated uric acid levels had almost a seven-fold increased risk of premature delivery and delivered nearly four weeks earlier than preeclampsia women whose uric acid levels were normal. Most of these deliveries were induced and infants tended to be smaller at birth. However, in women with high blood pressure and no protein in their urine but who did have increased uric acid, the risk of early delivery or reduced fetal growth was as likely as in women with classic signs of preelcampsia but normal uric acid. Also, women with high blood pressure who lacked protein in their urine and had normal uric acid had no increased risk for their babies.

"Irrespective of protein levels, women with high blood pressure had a higher incidence of being delivered early as uric acid increased,” said first author James M. Roberts, M.D., professor and vice chair of research in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "For every one-unit increase in uric acid, the odds of preterm birth increased 2.3 times.”