Pre Eclampsia Breakthrough

Removing a protein in the blood may help women with pre-eclampsia avoid going into premature labour, says study.

19:15 25 September 2015

A new treatment may help women with pre-eclampsia, a condition wherein they develop high blood pressure and protein in the urine, to avoid getting into premature labour. Research suggests that removing a protein in the blood can overcome the birth complication that affect one in 12 pregnant women.  

 

Currently, pre-eclampsia is treated by delivering the baby. However, with the new treatment, which can be considered as one of the first therapeutic interventions for the condition, pregnancy can safely continue.

 

Study lead author Doctor Ravi Thadhani, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "Based on recent advances in the understanding of this condition, we and others are developing treatments for pre-eclampsia to allow women to safely prolong their pregnancy if they are suffering from very pre-term pre-eclampsia.

 

"Prolonging pregnancy allows the baby to mature, markedly reducing complications."

 

"Our pilot study suggested we can safely prolong pregnancy when we target removal of sFlt-1 in women with severe preterm pre-eclampsia, and we hope this is confirmed in randomised trials."