Screening test detects pregnancy threat at 15 weeks
Pre-eclampsia causes high blood pressure during the second half of pregnancy and affects about 3% of all first-time mothers.
Without an effective test for this condition, clinicians are unable to offer preventive measures to lower the risk of it developing.
Researchers at University College Cork have developed a test they believe can predict pre-eclampsia at around 15 weeks. The test could be available in less than three years.
Project leader Louise Kenny, UCC professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, said it had taken 12 years for the college to develop the test, which is based on the science of metabolomics, the study of chemical processes of the small molecules involved in metabolism.
Prof Kenny, who is also director of the Irish Centre for Foetal and Neonatal Translational Research, said it was hoped that the test would be available within a few months of the close of the clinical trial in 2016.
The project, Improved Pregnancy Outcomes by Early Detection, has received €6m in EU funding for the four-year trial that started on Nov 1, 2012.
Project partner Meta-bolomic Diagnostics Ltd, a Cork-based medical diagnostics company, said the test provided a window into what was happening in the metabolism at any moment in time.
Chief executive Charles Garvey said the project would also trial a protein-based test. “At the end of the study, we’ll know which test works best. We’ll also be able to see whether combining the tests will give rise to super tests,” he said.
Prof Kenny said there would be 5,000 first-time mothers involved in the trial across Europe, including 1,000 from Munster.
Pre-eclampsia is characterised by high blood pressure (hypertension) and elevated protein in the urine leading to restricted blood supply to the foetus.
Prof Kenny said the condition begins in early pregnancy with defective development of the placenta, but often does not manifest itself until the second half of pregnancy.
“If you can pick out women at risk, you can push them into a different pattern of antenatal care, including increased maternal and foetal surveillance, which means that the disease can be picked up early and mothers and babies can be saved,” she said.
Prof Kenny said they were also developing preventative strategies but had no way of knowing who would need them without the test.
“At the moment we just give aspirin to treat the condition but we are hoping to have other novel drugs available in the future.”
Pre-eclampsia kills about 70,000 women a year and is one of the leading causes of premature birth that can cause health problems in the newborn baby.
Pre-eclampsia can harm the mother’s kidneys, brain, heart, liver, and eyes. It can also lead to a more serious condition called eclampsia that can cause seizures and even lead to coma or death.
