Preeclampsia affects around 5% of all pregnancies and is one of the leading causes of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality globally. A multicenter investigation has found that a particular protein pair imbalance in the blood test of hospitalized pregnant women provides a means to quantify their risk of developing severe preeclampsia. The study involved around 1,000 women with hypertensive disorder , with pregnancy between 23 and 35 weeks of gestation, from 18 hospitals across the US. It reported the measurement of serum soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and placental growth factor (PlGF) to be a risk stratifying factor for developing preeclampsia with severe features.
The study predicted outcomes with > 95% accuracy for the protein pair biomarkers vs. < 75% accuracy shown by the usual markers. The ratio of sFlT-1: PIGF of 40 or greater predicted the development of…
