Interesting study.
Rayner Garner
AP news piece out of Chicago
Study Links False Hypertension with Caesareans
Many pregnant women may undergo unnecessary Caesarean sections
because they have "white-coat hypertension" - high blood pressure
that happens only when they are around doctors, a study suggests.
Almost one-third of pregnant women has such false high blood
pressure in a studey reported in today's Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Believing it was real hypertension, doctors usually treated it
with blood pressure-lowering drugs, which can compromise women's
ability to have normal contractions and in the study led to apparently
unnecessary C-sections, said researchers led by Dr. Gianni Beliomo
of Assisi Hospital in Italy.
White-coat hypertension is common in adults and happens when
patients become nervous. In previous studies, it has been found
to lead to unnecessary drug treatment. But the condition's implications
for pregnant women had not been explored until now, the researchers
said.
They studied 144 pregnant women who had high blood pressure during
the final third of their pregnancies and found that 42 had white-coat
hypertension. The women's blood pressure was normal when it
was not being measured by a health professional, as shown by
portable monitors the women wore for 24 hours.
Nineteen of these 42 women ultimately underwent Caesareans (45
percent), a rate similar to the 42 Caesareans (41 percent) among
the 102 women with true hypertension. But only 13 Caesarean
deliveries (12 percent) were done among a comparison group of
103 women with normal blood pressure.
Hyperension during pregnancy can be a sign of a serious condition
called pre-eclampsia, which may in turn lead to eclampsia. Eclampsia
can cause the death of both mother and child. (end)
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