Research paper
Effect of supplementation during pregnancy with L-arginine and antioxidant vitamins in medical food on pre-eclampsia in high risk population: randomised controlled trial
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Study answer
What this study found
L-arginine plus antioxidant vitamins reduced the risk of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, while antioxidant vitamins alone did not show a clear significant benefit. In the active arms, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia occurred in 29 (13) participants with L-arginine plus antioxidant vitamins and 50 (23) with antioxidant vitamins alone; the absolute risk reduction was 0.17 (0.12 to 0.21) vs placebo and 0.09 (0.05 to 0.14) vs vitamins alone, with P<0.001 vs placebo and P=0.004 vs vitamins alone. Antioxidant vitamins alone had P=0.052 vs placebo. The protective effect was greater when treatment began before 24…
- Study & population
- Randomized controlled trial in pregnant women at high risk for pre-eclampsia in Mexico City, recruited at a single institution from January 2001 to December 2005.
- Intervention
- Pregnant participants were assigned to Heart Bars taken twice daily for 5 weeks.
- Key limitation
- Single-center trial in a high-risk pregnant population, which limits generalizability.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Objective To test the hypothesis that a relative deficiency in L-arginine, the substrate for synthesis of the vasodilatory gas nitric oxide, may be associated with the development of pre-eclampsia in a population at high risk. Design Randomised, blin…