The FDA recently approved a blood test that predicts the likelihood of developing pre-eclampsia, a severe form of high blood pressure that occurs in pregnant women. Pre-eclampsia can lead to eclampsia, which causes seizures and can result in death. About 1 in 25 pregnant people will develop pre-eclampsia, and those who do need to be carefully monitored, because the condition can advance rapidly. A person with pre-eclampsia can go from asymptomatic to organ failure over the course of a single day.

The test predicts who out of those with symptoms of pre-eclampsia will develop the condition in the next two weeks. Because the test can only predict for a two week period, mothers with symptoms will have to be repeatedly tested every two weeks. If the test says there’s a high risk of pre-eclampsia then birth plans are expedited, if the test indicates severe pre-eclampsia then doctors might decide to induce birth in a matter of days. 

The test measures the ratio of two proteins that are produced by the placenta. In people with acute pre-eclampsia these proteins are severely unbalanced in the blood. This is the first test of its kind. Although pre-eclampsia was discovered over 100 years ago no method of predicting it was found before this test. 

Pre-eclampsia is more common in black mothers, so hopefully the blood test will help reduce the sobering rates of death in pregnant black women in the United States.  

If you were not adequately tested or monitored during your pregnancy and it caused you or your child harm you might have a medical malpractice case. See our birth injury page here.