Kerry Katona, a former pop star and reality-TV contestant, was admitted to hospital last night after showing signs of the potentially fatal medical condition pre-eclampsia.

The 27-year-old winner of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is expecting her fourth baby, a boy whom she intends to name Maxwell after her publicist and friend, Max Clifford.

Katona was admitted to hospital after her midwife raised the alarm. She was kept in overnight, but after a battery of tests doctors decided that she could go back to her home in Wilmslow later today.

Mr Clifford said today that Katona had undergone tests at Macclesfield District General Hospital in Cheshire as a precautionary measure, after suffering symptoms typical of the condition, which affects up to one in 14 pregnant women but whose cause is not fully understood. The condition kills 22,000 women worldwide each year.

"In fact it was water retention and low iron levels, which brought on similar symptoms," said a spokeswoman for the star. "That is fantastic news. Mummy and baby are fine."

Mr Clifford confirmed that it was Katona's second recent hospital admission. She left the Priory clinic last Friday after treatment for bipolar disorder, he said.

"She’s been in a lot of pain, particularly in the last few days," said Mr Clifford, who gave Katona away at her wedding to her second husband, Mark Croft.

"The symptoms she’s showing are possibly that of pre-eclampsia."

He said Katona, a former member of the girl band Atomic Kitten, had been troubled by swollen feet and legs and pains going up her feet.

The chief risk of pre-eclampsia, characterised by raised blood pressure and protein in the urine, is that it could lead to eclampsia, in which patients have generalised seizures or fits.

The characteristic signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia, which affects up to 7 or 8 per cent of pregnancies, are swelling of the feet and fingers, and later of the face, and an increase in blood pressure.

A sudden increase in a pregnant woman’s weight can also be a sign of the condition, which may occasionally cause abdominal pain because of vascular problems in the liver or its capsule, or from bleeding under the baby’s placenta.

No-one knows what causes pre-eclampsia. People who have pre-existing high blood pressure, who are overweight or who have any renal disease are more likely to develop it, but it can also strike the healthiest women.

The treatment for mild cases of pre-eclampsia is increased bed rest, while moderate cases might occasionally be admitted to hospital.

If a woman developed eclampsia, which is life threatening for child and mother, doctors would seek to control the fits and arrange an emergency delivery.

Katona had been due to film a new MTV reality series Crazy In Love this week, but production had already been suspended after she was admitted to the Priory. Filming of the show remains on hold while she is treated in hospital.

She had checked into the Priory three times previously, the first time after separating from McFadden in 2004. Reports alleged that her 37-year-old husband had been unfaithful, but Mr Clifford said she was being treated for bipolar disorder.

The former winner of Celebrity Mum of the Year has been said to be extremely depressed over what she insists are false newspaper reports that she is still taking drugs despite being pregnant.

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