Evaluation of the effect of high-dose folic acid on endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclamptic patients: A randomized clinical trial

Background: pre‑eclampsia as a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy complicates up to 5–10% of pregnancies worldwide. endothelial dysfunction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of pre‑eclampsia. in this study,we aim to evaluate the effect of high-dose folic acid on endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclamptic patients. materials and methods: in this triple-blinded randomized clinical trial,the enrolled patients were divided randomly into two groups. folic acid 5.0 mg or placebo was taken daily by oral administration from the initiation of diagnosis until 2 months after delivery by the participants. every patient’s flow-mediated dilation (fmd) was evaluated at the beginning of the study and 2 months after delivery with the same experienced operator at the same period of time (3–5 p.m.) by high-resolution b-mode ultrasonography. potential confounding variables were included in the independent samples t-test. t-test or mann–whitney u-test was used in the comparison of means between the intervention and placebo groups. to compare fmd in each group,before and after the intervention,paired t-test was used. results: mean value of fmd in intervention (9.64 � 5.57) and control group (9.30 � 4.25) has no significant difference before the consumption of drugs (p > 0.05). fmd in intervention group (13.72 � 7.89) significantly increases after daily consumption of 5 mg folic acid in comparison with control group (10.02 � 4.81) after daily consumption of placebo (p = 0.002). conclusion: increased mean of fmd in intervention group shows that this supplement can improve endothelial function and can be significantly affected by maternal blood pressure during pregnancy and some endothelium-dependent disease such as pre‑eclampsia and its associated adverse outcomes. � 2016 journal of research in medical sciences.