The team from the Department of Women & Children's Health at King's carried out a trial comparing the current and new methods in women suffering from
pre-eclampsia at 34-37 weeks of pregnancy, to see if they could reduce adverse outcomes for the mother such as hypertension, and without impacting substantially on the baby.
The study drew its basis from a trial comparing the current and new methods in women suffering from
pre-eclampsia at 34-37 weeks of pregnancy and was published in the journal 'The Lancet'.
This resulted in a high sensitivity for preterm
pre-eclampsia (76%), but a relatively low specificity (55%)15.
A new speedy test Test medics for
pre-eclampsia which is 95% accurate does just that.
Experts examined data for 6.3 million women in English hospitals between 1997 and 2015, during which time 276,389 pregnancies were affected by high blood pressure and 223,715 by
pre-eclampsia. The study found that the risk of developing a serious heart and circulatory condition increased by 45 per cent if a woman had high blood pressure during pregnancy, or by 69 per cent for women who had experienced
pre-eclampsia.
"A woman has a higher risk of developing
pre-eclampsia if her blood pressure was high before pregnancy, her blood pressure was high in a previous pregnancy and/ or she had a medical problem or a condition that affects the immune system.
Expert Dr Pat O'Brien said: "
Pre-eclampsia occurs when the placenta doesn't work properly.
Delivery is the only cure for
pre-eclampsia. Management outcome depends on gestational age and severity of the disease.
Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are at times treated as components of a common syndrome.
[5] However, the incidence of headache is far greater in patients with
pre-eclampsia; a case-control study showed an odds ratio of 4.95 (95% confidence interval 2.47-9.92) of headache being more frequent in
pre-eclampsia.
PRE-ECLAMPSIA normally occurs around the second half of the pregnancy, or just after the baby is delivered.
Pre-eclampsia (PE) is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity worldwide.