Antiplatelet agents, such as aspirin and dipyridamole, are safe and effective for preventing pre-eclampsia and its complications, according to a Cochrane review.

Dr Lelia Duley of Nottingham Health Science Partners, in the UK, and colleagues assessed the effectiveness and safety of antiplatelet drugs for preventing pre-eclampsia and its complications in their systematic review of 77 randomised trials, including more than 40,000 women and their babies.

Low-dose aspirin (75mg per day or less) was the sole intervention in all of the large trials and in most of the trials overall.

The use of antiplatelet agents was associated with a significant 18% reduction in the risk of proteinuric pre-eclampsia, with a number needed to treat for one woman to benefit of 61, the researchers reported in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.