Open AccessDietary supplementation with l ‐arginine or placebo in women with pre‐eclampsia
Author(s) -
Staff Anne Cathrine,
Berge Lillian,
Haugen Guttorm,
Lorentzen Bjorg,
Mikkelsen Bente,
Henriksen Tore
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2004.00321.x
Subject(s) - medicine , placebo , blood pressure , arginine , gestational age , diastole , birth weight , preeclampsia , pregnancy , eclampsia , percentile , obstetrics , endocrinology , biochemistry , chemistry , alternative medicine , amino acid , pathology , biology , genetics , statistics , mathematics
Background. To investigate the effect of dietary intake of the NO‐donor l ‐arginine on the diastolic blood pressure in women with pre‐eclampsia. Methods. A randomized double‐blind study was designed to compare the effect of l ‐arginine and placebo in pre‐eclamptic women with gestational length ranging from 28 +0 to 36 +0 weeks. The women received orally 12 g of l ‐arginine or placebo daily for up to 5 days. The primary end‐point was to identify a difference in diastolic blood pressure alteration between the two groups after 2 days of intervention. Secondary end‐points included the interval from study start to delivery, the proportion of women delivered after 2, 5 or 10 days from treatment start and mean birth weight. Results. There was no statistically significant alteration in diastolic blood pressure in the l ‐arginine group compared with the placebo group after 2 days of treatment ( p = 0.4). No differences in the proportions of women delivered by day 2, 5 or 10 after study start, in the mean interval from study start to delivery, or in mean birth weight percentile were observed between the two groups. Conclusions. Oral l ‐arginine supplementation did not reduce mean diastolic blood pressure after 2 days of treatment compared with placebo in pre‐eclamptic patients with gestational length varying from 28 to 36 weeks. Whether l ‐arginine treatment could be clinically beneficial for the mother or the fetus if started earlier in the disease process than for the women in our study remains to be seen.