An international study conducted in Cape Town is testing whether esomeprazole, a common drug used to treat gastric reflux, can treat pre-eclampsia – one of the most common causes of maternal death in South Africa.
Pre-eclampsia is a potentially deadly pregnancy complication where the placenta releases toxins in the body that can damage blood vessels and lead to organ failure in pregnant women.
The important new treatment, which could potentially save the lives of 60 000 pregnant women every year, is currently being tested at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital.
Dr Cathy Cluver, with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the FMHS, is leading the study.
“Currently the only treatment for pre-eclampsia is to deliver the baby and to get the placenta out.
‘‘Late in a pregnancy it is fairly safe to deliver a baby, but when it is early in the pregnancy – before the baby is fully developed – delivery could be dangerous, or even fatal, to the baby,” Cluver said.
“We know that if we deliver babies at 34 weeks they do pretty well, and that's why we try and get the pregnancy to 34 weeks.
‘‘We deliver the babies even if the moms are doing well, because of the risk to the mom,” she added.
Side-effects of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure which could cause a pregnant woman to have a stroke or fit. Other complications include kidney damage, fluid on the lungs and heart failure.
The trial is a double-blind, randomised control trial designed to test whether esomeprazole treatment can help pregnant women who develop pre-eclampsia early in pregnancy (between 26 and 32 weeks) to safely carry the pregnancy up to 34 weeks when the baby has an increased chance of survival. A pregnancy is full term at 40 weeks.
Cluver is conducting the trial in collaboration with researchers from the Translational Obstetrics Group at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who originally discovered the potential treatment benefits of esomeprazole for pre-eclampsia.
Cluver and her research midwife, Sister Erika van Papendorp, have already recruited over one hundred participants and hope to complete the trial in the next few months.
“If this trial shows a difference it may be the first successful treatment for this devastating condition.
"This would be a breakthrough in medical practice,” Cluver said.