DOCTOR’S NOTE
A NEW blood test can spot potentially life-threatening problems in pregnancy.
Genetic sequencing from a single blood sample was shown to predict pre-eclampsia, which affects one in 14 mums-to-be.
The condition reduces blood flow through the placenta, and can occasionally lead to stillbirth or even the mother’s death.
An international team studied 1,840 pregnancies. Researchers developed a method which produced a seven-fold improvement in predicting the condition compared to current methods, like ultrasound.
Senior author Professor Thomas McElrath, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, US, called it an “entirely new” monitoring method.