New way to screen pregnant women

A BETTER way of screening for a potentially fatal complication of pregnancy has been discovered.

Pre-eclampsia is a serious disorder suffered by up to one in 14 pregnant women – including celebrity mums Kim Kardashian, Mariah Carey and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

Now new research has highlighted a more accurate way to screen for preeclampsia in pregnant women than currently recommended methods.

The findings, in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, challenges current UK guidelines on the management of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.

Pre-eclampsia can have serious health effects for both the mother and child.

The condition is characterised by high blood pressure. Some women develop very severe disease with kidney, liver, bleeding and neurological problems.

The foetus may experience impaired growth and can even die. Risks are especially high when preeclampsia leads to pre-term birth before 37 weeks.

Recent evidence suggests that giving aspirin to women at high risk of the disorder can reduce the prevalence of the severest form of pre-eclampsia by more than 60 per cent.

But the treatment must be started before 16 weeks, meaning early detection is essential.

In the UK, identification of high-risk women is based on a checklist of maternal characteristics and medical historys.

An alternative approach combines known risk factors with the results of maternal measurements taken at 11 to 13 weeks.