Aspirin for Prevention of Preeclampsia

Prophylaxis with low-dose aspirin has been recommended to prevent preeclampsia, the rationale being that hypertension and abnormalities of coagulation in this disease are caused in part by an imbalance between vasodilating and vasoconstricting prostaglandins. Low-dose aspirin therapy inhibits thromboxane production more than prostacyclin production and therefore should protect against vasoconstriction and pathologic blood coagulation in the placenta. Initially, several single-center trials, mostly among women at increased risk for preeclampsia, demonstrated a substantial reduction in the risk of proteinuric hypertension as well as reductions in the incidences of preterm birth, infants small for gestational age, and perinatal death,