If you are pregnant it can be a killer – literally. It’s called pre-eclampsia and is caused by rising blood pressure.
When a woman gets it, doctors need to know how to treat her and that can involve some tough decisions.
Now Canadian researchers have come up with a new way to help doctors and mothers make these decisions.
It’s called a model for predicting the likelihood of a poor outcome for pregnant women with pre-eclampsia and has been developed in Canada.
The fullPIERS model has been shown to identify women at increased risk of adverse outcomes up to seven days before complications arise.
Developed by Dr Peter von Dadelszen, of the Child & Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues, the model aims to identify the risk the life-threatening complication within 48 hours of hospital admission for the disorder.
It means clinicians can personalise care quickly, a report in The Lancet, says.
The model is built on six variables that were identified by researchers as critical for predicting the likelihood of a poor outcome for pregnant women with pre-eclampsia.
Research was conducted in eight centres in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, between September 1, 2003 and January 31, 2010, and involved the analysis of 34 predictor variables.
They assessed the fullPIERS model when 200 women were entered into the study database and monthly thereafter, which allowed the researchers to get rids of any variables that were not statistically informative.
The researchers built the fullPIERS model using statistical analysis to identify the variables that predicted poor outcomes in women with pre-eclampsia: gestational age, chest pain, shortness of breath, liver enzyme test, platelet counts, kidney function test and blood oxygen levels.
Of the 2,023 women with pre-eclampsia who were included in the study, 261 (13 per cent) had adverse outcomes. None died.
The authors say: "Abandoning of redundant tests seems reasonable. An important effect of fullPIERS might be identification of women at lowest risk of adverse outcomes, who can be offered expectant management either remote from term for perinatal benefit or at or near term during induction of labour."
In a linked Comment, Dr Gary L Darmstadt, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Health Division, Global Health Program, Seattle, WA, USA, and colleagues say: "We hope that this new knowledge will be translated into effective and immediate action and further adapted and validated for use in low-income and middle-income countries, and thus used to its greatest advantage to save the lives of mothers and babies."
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