Pregnant Women WarnedAbout ACE Inhibitor

Some of the mostcommonly used medicines for high blood pressure are drugs called ACEin-hibitors.Doctors have given these drugs to patients for twenty-five years.A

government study inthe United Statesfound that the use almost doubled between 1995 and 2000.

Doctors have knownfor years that women should not take ACE inhibitors during the last six monthsof pregnancy.The medicine can injure the baby.ACE

inhibitors,though,havebeen con-sidered safe when taken during the first three months. But a new studyhas found that women who take these drugs early in their pregnancy

still increase therisk of birth disorders. The study shows that,compared to others,their babieswere almost three times as likely to be born with major problems .These

included problemswith the formation of the brain and nervous system and holes in the heart.

The researchers saythey found no increased risk in women who took other blood pressure medicinesduring the first three months.Researchers at Vanderbilt Universityin

Tennessee and Boston Universitydid the study.The New England Journal of Medicine published the results. Theresearchers studied the records of almost thirty thousand

births between 1985and 2000.Two hun-dred nine babies were born to women who took ACE inhibitorsduring the first three months of their pregnancies.Eighteen of the

babies,or almostnine percent,had major disorders.

ACE inhibitors areoften given to patients with diabetes. But diabetes during pregnancy can resultin birth defects.So the study did not include any women known to be

diabetic.ACE inhibi-tors suppress a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme or ACE.This enzymeproduces a chemical in the body that makes blood passages

narrow.The drugsincrease the flow of blood so pressure is reduced.

New drugs are testedon pregnant animals to see if they might cause birth defects in humans. Butexperts say these tests are not always dependable.The United States Food

and Drug Adminis-tration helped pay for the study .The F. D.A.says women who might becomepregnant should talk with their doctor about other ways to treat high blood

pressure.ACE is a risk factorto our body______.

A.that may causeour blood vessels to become more and more narrow

B. for pregnantwomen to take during their last six months of pregnancies

C. that theirlikelihood to suffer major problems is two times higher than other babies

D. with theirdoctors about how to treat their problems

E. because diabetesduring pregnancy may sometimes lead to birth defects