US researchers develop simple blood test to predict preeclampsia during pregnancy

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) A team of US researchers has developed a simple blood test that can predict preeclampsia -- a serious pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure.

Preeclampsia, which occurs usually after 20 weeks of gestation, is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality as well as preterm birth.

Despite the use of general maternal characteristics to identify pregnant women at increased risk for preeclampsia, rates of the disease have nearly doubled in the last decade.

The new blood test, which uses RNA signatures, showed that it can identify the risk of preeclampsia in 91 per cent of pregnancies.

"By the time a patient is symptomatic, it's a race against the clock to try to get the baby to term and not risk the mother's health," said Dr. Kara Rood, a maternal-foetal medicine physician, one of the principal investigators of the study at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Centre.

The new test could identify the risk, months ahead of symptoms, in women aged over 35 and without pre-existing high-risk conditions.

It could predict preeclampsia early, at 17.5 to 22 weeks gestational age, in pregnancies without any pre-existing high-risk conditions.

Those with a low-risk result have a 99.7 per cent probability of not developing preterm preeclampsia.

"Current guidelines are not helping us identify which patients are truly at high risk and we need better tools. This preeclampsia risk prediction test can now improve risk assessment, helping women and their care teams be informed and take actions with the potential to delay the onset of or prevent the disease," Rood added.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrates that relying on molecular signals from the underlying biology is far more effective in determining whether the risk of preeclampsia is high or low.

To develop the blood test, the team used data from more than 9,000 pregnancies within the multi-centre prospective study to discover and validate RNA signatures capable of distinguishing between severe and mild hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia, months before symptoms occur.

--IANS

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