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HEPARIN IN HUMAN PLACENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE PREVENTION OF PLACENTAL COMPLICATIONS OF PREGNANCY

Part of: Bespoke shallow archive Weizmann

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

SASCHA DREWLO ,
MELISSA WALKER ,
ANNE MCLEOD ,
JODIE DODD  and
JOHN KINGDOM
SASCHA DREWLO
Affiliation:
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Toronto, Canada
MELISSA WALKER
Affiliation:
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada
ANNE MCLEOD
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Hospital, Canada
JODIE DODD
Affiliation:
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Adelaide, Australia
JOHN KINGDOM*
Affiliation:
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Toronto, Canada
*
Correspondence to: Dr J Kingdom, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Room 3265, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, CanadaM5G 1 × 5. Email: [email protected]
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Extract

The development of effective anticoagulant drugs available for use in pregnancy has resulted in dramatic improvements for a number of potentially life-threatening conditions. These include the treatment and prevention of venous thromboembolism and the thrombotic complications of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, as well as the management of pregnant women with mechanical heart valves. The most commonly used class of drug includes heparin, a highly-charged macro-molecule that does not cross the placenta, in contrast to the potentially teratogenic and fetotoxic oral drug warfarin. This review will focus on our current lack of understanding of the wider actions of heparin and examines the possibility that large numbers of pregnant women are presently being treated inappropriately with heparin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Fetal and Maternal Medicine Review , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 185 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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