Simple test identifies potentially fatal pre-eclampsia up to ten weeks earlier

A TEST has been developed to detect a condition that kills 700 unborn babies every year more quickly.

The simple urine test could flag up preeclampsia ten weeks earlier than current methods, US doctors say.

The complication affects one in 12 pregnancies and endangers 50,000 pregnant women, but is not usually diagnosed until they begin antenatal appointments.

It can also kill mothers, who are most at risk if they are overweight or aged over 40.

At the moment, high blood pressure or protein in the urine are the first signs of pre- eclampsia, in which the mother’s immune system is thought to treat her baby as a foreign object and reject it.

Doctors believe it is caused by the placenta failing to develop properly in the womb. The only ‘cure’ is to deliver the baby prematurely. But the new, cheaper test picks up an earlier and far more subtle red flag – kidney cells. Writing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the researchers said these show up in the mother’s urine at 27 weeks – before protein or high blood pressure are detected.

Also, women with pre- eclampsia might not have protein in their urine, which makes the new test more accurate.

Lead author Dr Vesna Garovic, of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, said: ‘This impor- tant test can tell a woman if she has preeclampsia or not within just two hours.

‘It is a more sensitive test than those which are currently available, and should be available routinely within two years.’

Marcus Green, of Action on Pre-Eclampsia, said: ‘Every six minutes a woman dies somewhere in the world from pre-eclampsia – a cruel and terrible condition.’