Time: 2024-06-25
When you're expecting a baby, you hope nothing goes wrong. But at least one in 20 people who are pregnant develop a scary complication called pre-eclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that kills 70,000 women and 500,000 babies worldwide every year. There was no way to know when it might strike until now. New blood tests may help doctors predict and manage this dangerous condition.
What is pre-eclampsia? The condition affects both the mother and baby and can occur in the second half of pregnancy or the postpartum period. The exact causes aren't known. Besides high blood pressure, other signs of pre-eclampsia include protein in the urine, severe headaches, changes in vision, nausea, and sudden swelling in your face and hands. It's generally diagnosed by checking for protein in the urine, measuring blood pressure, and following up with other tests if warranted.
To prevent the condition, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends pregnant patients get low-dose aspirin if they have one or more particular risk factors, such as chronic high blood pressure, Type 1 or 2 diabetes before pregnancy, or kidney disease.
How do the new tests work? The tests measure biomarkers for pre-eclampsia in the blood, objective measures that show what's happening in an organism at any given moment. At this point, there are only a few tests on the market. One, by Labcorp, is designed to be performed between 11 and 14 weeks gestation on any pregnant patient. It measures four early pregnancy biomarkers that, combined with other factors, help determine the risk of developing pre-eclampsia before 34 weeks of pregnancy. Two other tests another by Labcorp and one from Thermo Fisher Scientific are used in the second and third trimesters on hospitalized patients to assess whether they are at risk of progressing to severe pre-eclampsia within a couple of weeks. More tests by other companies are in the pipeline.
They absolutely represent an exciting advancement, especially when you look at the field of pre-eclampsia and the fact that there's been very little new introduced to the field in decades, said Eleni Tsigas, CEO of the nonprofit Pre-eclampsia Foundation.
The new blood tests augment but don't replace a doctor's judgment, she added, basically giving them insight that they haven't had before. And that's particularly useful in cases where things are in the gray zone, such as when you have preexisting health problems such as chronic high blood pressure or obesity.
Should you ask for a test? If I were pregnant today then I absolutely would, Tsigas said. Though there's no therapy right at the moment, Karumanchi said, doctors can closely watch those at higher risk and do more follow-ups with them. For patients shown to be at low risk, the tests offer reassurance.
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