Drug cuts risk of seizures in pregnancy
By Ben Harder
New data from a massive international research effort indicate that an inexpensive drug treatment lessens the risk of seizures that sometimes strike and even kill women during pregnancy or immediately after delivery. The finding could stimulate efforts to make the anticonvulsant drug, magnesium sulfate more widely available and more routinely used.
Worldwide, an estimated 50,000 pregnant women die each year from complications related to preeclampsia, a condition of elevated blood pressure and protein buildup in urine that develops during some pregnancies. This occasionally results in eclampsia, including seizures that can be lethal.