New blood test predicts preeclampsia risk early in pregnancy
Preeclampsia is a disorder that affects pregnant women, putting their lives (and their babies) at risk. File photo
What you need to know:
- The serious blood pressure condition is attributed to 500,000 foetal deaths and over 70,000 maternal deaths worldwide annually.
Women susceptible to life-threatening high blood pressure during pregnancy could soon find relief, thanks to a new blood test that predicts preterm preeclampsia with high precision.
Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy condition attributed to 500,000 foetal deaths and over 70,000 maternal deaths worldwide annually.
Early detection and proactive treatment have been elusive as it has been difficult to predict preeclampsia for many years.
But there is good news.
In a new study published in the Nature Medicine journal, scientists have discovered a novel, blood test that can detect preterm preeclampsia with 80 per cent accuracy.
“Doctors do look at clinical risk factors, which can work reasonably well, but it still misses a fair amount of people,” explained the study co-author, Dr Swati Shree.
The professional gynecologist and obstetrician stated: “While we believe the placenta is integral to preeclampsia development, it is not something we can conduct biopsy with during pregnancy.”
The team of researchers from Fred Hutch Cancer Centre and UW Medicine collected clinical samples from over 1,000 pregnant women between 2017-2023.
The data gathered during the first trimester acted as liquid biopsy and was categorised as “preeclampsia clinical diagnosis” and “normal pregnancy classification.”
They screened for preeclampsia using DNA sequence data that is cell-free.
The approach had 80 per cent sensitivity accuracy in predicting whether a woman would experience preeclampsia during her pregnancy or not using their approach.
“Liquid biopsy tests, which are now an emerging area of research in cancer treatment, were started in health research involving pregnancy,” explained Fred Hutch’s biologist, Gavin Ha.
“The study is a collaboration that connects both fields of research. In both areas, there are gene similarities we are investigating.”
For clinical analysis, blood pressure and BMI were used because they can easily be verified, especially for some conditions, to minimise clinical burden, stated the study published last month in the Nature Journal.
While the innovative blood test exhibits immense promise, the scientists acknowledge the critical need to improve the model and trials using a broad sample by including samples from low-income countries that were not factored in.
“We recognise the lack or representation geographically of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) in this proof of consent study,” read the study in part.
“To determine if our findings are applicable and beneficial to pregnant women, we acknowledge that it is crucial to represent LMIC in large potential studies.”
Preeclampsia, experts say, is a pregnancy complication that is characterised by organ dysfunction and high blood pressure (HBP).
It affects two to eight per cent of pregnant women and it contributes to a high maternal and foetal death rate, particularly in preterm delivery.
The exact cause of the condition remains unknown, but it is suspected to result from abnormal interaction between blood vessels of the mother and placenta.
For many years, experts have known that placenta DNA is released into the mother’s blood.
It has been possible to screen abnormalities in foetuses such as Down syndrome by extracting samples of cell-free DNA sequences.
Patient history was the conventional method used by medics to assess the risk of a pregnant woman.
Chronic disease, HBP or both, first pregnancy and preeclampsia history are among the risk factors of preeclampsia.
However, experts say patients can experience the condition without any of those pre-existing conditions,
“Predicting preeclampsia before the onset of the condition is still challenging, with many methods relying on binary risk classification purely based on clinical factors or in a combination of circulating biomarkers,” experts explain.
These methods, however, are largely unreliable, experts say, noting that “the placenta has a well-defined role in developmental origins of preeclampsia.”
The analysis could further be developed to provide a non-invasive method that is essential in detecting the risk of preeclampsia.
It could also be used to improve the underlying biology and develop strategies to mitigate the risk of the condition, considering the placenta is inaccessible during pregnancy.
