Asthma treatment helps to prevent miscarriages

A common treatment for asthma could help prevent women from having recurrent miscarriages and allow them to get pregnant.

British researchers have found that the steroid prednisolone can destroy certain cells that appear to be linked to miscarriage.

The findings were presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen yesterday.

The drug, which costs $2.55 a week, is a breakthrough in an area where doctors still have little knowledge. There are no treatments, cures or preventative therapies for miscarriage.

Two women in an early study have had babies following the treatment, and another three are pregnant and considered out of the risk period for miscarriage.

Women who suffer at least three miscarriages in a row are considered to have a recurrent problem, and 2 per cent of all women of reproductive age are affected.

Dr Siobhan Quenby, of the Department of Developmental and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Liverpool, studied 29 women, some of whom have had as many as 33 miscarriages.

All the women had higher than average numbers of so-called uterine natural killer (uNK) cells.These are found in the uterus and the deciduas, the special lining the uterus develops during pregnancy.

They are also close to the outermost cells of the early embryo, suggesting they play a role in the way some women miscarry.

The uNKs also have steroid hormone receptors on their surface, indicating they may be sensitive to steroids.

On average, 14 per cent of the cells in the endometriums of the women in the study were found to be uNKs, compared with 5 per cent in the normal population. Some had as much as 72 per cent.

The women were asked to take prednisolone tablets for three weeks, and their uNK levels were then measured again.

They then had an average of 9 per cent uNK cells, and the researchers believe the rates could fall even further.

So far two of the women have had babies and three are pregnant at 37, 25 and 14 weeks - a time normally considered out of the danger zone for miscarriage.

Dr Quenby said: "This is exciting, but the research is still at an early stage and I now need to conduct a large-scale trial."

- INDEPENDENT