Word: preeclampsia
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Researchers published findings in Saturday's issue of Nature Genetics of a correlation between a gene mutation and the condition known as preeclampsia, which most often strikes women in their first pregnancy...
Toxemia, as the condition is more commonly known, is the forerunner of eclampsia, in which women fall victim to convulsive seizures near the end of pregnancy. Left untreated, such seizures can lead to death in preeclampsia's victims, who are usually very young mothers or older mothers aged...
Lalouel and other researchers, including Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Richard P. Lifton, examined DNA of women in Utah and Japan who had been diagnosed with preeclampsia. The mutation the study found lies in the gene coding for angiotensinogen, a protein involved in regulating blood pressure...
...finding is significant because a common diagnosis of preeclampsia is an increase in blood pressure, or hypertension, and the presence of excess protein in the urine...
Pregnancy brings about major physiological changes and it is possible that these changes reveal "the underlying differences" between those who develop preeclampsia and those who do not, Lalouel said, among those who inherit the preeclampsia genetic defect...