CORRECTED: Epsom salt can prevent cerebral palsy: U.S. study

Corrects number of women tested in 8th paragraph to 2,241 from 241

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Giving a woman an infusion of Epsom salts when she goes into premature labor can help protect her baby from cerebral palsy, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Magnesium sulfate, popularly known as Epsom salts, cut the rate of cerebral palsy in half, Dr. John Thorp, a professor of obstetrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reported.

"We have a cheap, widely available treatment already in hand that cuts in half the risk of babies being born with an extremely disabling disorder," Thorp said in a statement.

"And virtually every delivery room in the United States is already stocked with magnesium sulfate solutions that are given to pregnant women during childbirth for other reasons."

Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director of the birth defect charity March of Dimes, was more cautious. "I think it is an important study," he said in a telephone interview.

But he noted that more study was needed to understand how the treatment works, and said the children were not protected from more subtle brain damage that affected intellectual and cognitive function.

Thorp's team presented their findings to a meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas.