Good news for pregnant women with asthma

Pregnant asthmatics who use inhaled steroids don't increase their risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension or preeclampsia, according to a recent nested case-control study from Canada.

The researchers included just over 3,500 women with asthma with a total of 4,593 pregnancies over a 10-year period. The adjusted odds ratios for women who used inhaled corticosteroids anytime from conception until pregnancy completion were 1.02 (95% CI; 0.77-1.34) for pregnancy-induced hypertension and 1.06 (0.74-1.53) for preeclampsia.

Oral corticosteroids were another story, however. They were linked to hypertension (OR: 1.57, 95% CI; 1.02-2.41), and researchers noticed a trend for an increase in preeclampsia (1.72, 0.98-3.02).