Donor-egg pregnancies, hypertension linked.(Obstetrics)

PHOENIX, ARIZ. -- Pregnancies achieved using donor-egg in vitro fertilization can present a higher risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension than those achieved through standard IVF, according to the results of a retrospective study.

Investigators compared 50 oocyte-donation pregnancies with 50 standard IVF pregnancies at three private practice medical groups at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. The rate of pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) was more than three times higher in the donor-egg IVF group than in the standard IVF group (27% vs. 8%), said Donna Wiggins, M.D., the study's lead investigator and a San Francisco ob.gyn.

PIH was defined as a systolic blood pressure (BP) of at least 140 mm Hg or a diastolic BP of at least 90 mm Hg occurring after 20 weeks' gestation in a woman with previously normal BP.

In looking separately at nulliparous patients, the researchers found greater PIH rates in the donor-egg IVF group (37% vs. 8%), she said at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.

Among women who had twins, 58% of those in the donor-egg IVF group and 17% of the standard IVF group developed PIH.

The women were between the ages of 30 and 50 years, and the average maternal age in the donor-egg IVF group was 42, compared with 38 in the standard IVF group. But Dr. Wiggins explained that when age stratifications were applied, there was not an increasing incidence with advancing age. And when the multiple logistic regression was applied, age fell out as an indicator of significance with regard to PIH.

Aside from the PIH rates, the two ...