New Blood Test May Help Determine Pregnant Women At Risk of Pre-eclampsia

A new blood test has been developed that may help predict whether a pregnant woman will develop the potentially deadly pre-eclampsia.

Professor Shaun Brennecke, from the Royal Women’s Hospital, who is leading a trial of a test that measures blood proteins that are released by the placenta during pregnancy, said that the results are promising so far. He told The Huffington Post Australia that the test will stop false alarm cases and will focus on women who are going to develop the condition.

Pre-eclampsia is a common and potentially deadly high blood pressure disorder that occurs in 5 to 10 per cent of pregnancies. It can only be detected in a pregnant woman once it has appeared. There is no cure for pre-eclampsia, which means one way to treat it is ending the pregnancy. “Although you can offer some treatment to help stabilise the mother, you can’t cure the condition until you deliver the baby and placenta,” Professor Brennecke said.

Records show that only 20 per cent of women who are admitted to hospital with possible pre-eclampsia actually have the condition. “Some women who are checked into an antenatal clinic may have features suspicious of the possibility of pre-eclampsia, but not yet a sufficiently high level to make the diagnosis. These women need to be monitored more closely an intervention that represents an imposition on the mother and a cost to the hospital,” Professor Brennecke said.

However, this new blood test would identify at-risk women because it measures two proteins that are released from the placenta which are found in the blood of women who have pre-eclampsia.

Professer Brennecke explained: “One blood factor is markedly increased in pre-eclampsia, and the other is reduced. By combining those two tests, we can discriminate those who are high-risk of pre-eclampsia and those who aren’t.”

The test will also indicate that pregnant women who are detected to have the signs of pre-eclampsia will have a 40 per cent chance of developing pre-eclampsia during the pregnancy.

Those women will be observed closely throughout their pregnancy and treated as soon as any signs of pre-eclampsia develop.

The test is not yet available outside of the testing group, but Professor Brennecke is confident it will be rolled out across the country after further testing and assessments.

Source: Essentialbaby.com.au