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Plasma from pre-eclamptic women and functional change in myometrial resistance arteries

J R Ashworth1, A Y Warren, I R Johnson

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham City Hospital, UK.

British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
|June 3, 1998
PubMed

This study assesses the ability of plasma from women with pre-eclampsia to induce altered endothelial function in myometrial resistance vessels from normotensive women. Vessels from normotensive pregnant women (n = 7) were incubated with plasma from other pregnant women who were normotensive (n = 6) or had pre-eclampsia (n = 7). A wire myograph was used to test the endothelium-dependent relaxatory response to bradykinin of preconstricted vessels. The relaxation in vessels incubated with plasma from women with pre-eclampsia was markedly less than in vessels incubated with plasma from normotensive pregnant women (P = 0.039). This supports the theory that a plasma-borne factor contributes to the endothelial changes seen in pre-eclampsia.

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