This chemical imbalance predates the symptoms of preeclampsia by several months. They also offer strategies for designing new treatments for the condition. Dr. Mills explained that PGI2 causes blood vessels to relax, reducing blood pressure. In contrast, TxA2 makes blood vessels contract, raising blood pressure. This suggests that an imbalance between the chemicals that increase and decrease blood pressure is an early, consistent abnormality in women likely to get preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia has no known cure.
About 5 percent of first-time mothers and 1 to 2 percent of mothers having subsequent pregnancies develop the condition, Dr. Mills said. Children born to mothers with preeclampsia may be small for their gestational age or may be born prematurely. These conditions, in turn, may place the infants at risk for a variety of other birth complications. Because a characteristic of preeclampsia is contraction of the blood vessels, Dr. Mills said, many studies of preeclampsia have focused on PGI2 and TxA2. However, these studies have often produced conflicting results.