January 4th 05, 10:41 PM
Off the AP Wire today, more suggestion that sFlt-1 is probably linked
to pre-eclampsia (as it binds to VEGF and PlGF)...
Test may predict pregnancy complication
By MIKE COLIAS
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO (AP) -- A simple urine test during pregnancy could someday
predict which women are likely to develop dangerously high blood
pressure called pre-eclampsia, a condition that kills hundreds of
mothers-to-be each year in the United States and leads to 15 percent of
all premature births, researchers say.
Pre-eclampsia occurs in as many as 8 percent of U.S. pregnancies, often
striking healthy women without warning, and can lead to seizures,
strokes and kidney damage. The cause is unknown, and there is no
reliable way in use today to predict who will develop it. The only
known cure is to deliver the baby, often prematurely.
But a new study offers hope for the development of a urine test over
the next few years that could identify high-risk women several weeks or
even months before pre-eclampsia develops.
The study found that urine samples from women who eventually developed
pre-eclampsia had extremely low levels of a protein called placental
growth factor, which nurtures blood vessels that support the mother and
fetus.
The same researchers reported last year that blood samples also can
predict the disease. But they said a urine test could allow women to
screen themselves and would be much easier to administer in Third World
countries.
While a screening test would not prevent the disorder, doctors could
monitor at-risk women more closely to prevent complications, and such
patients could, for example, be put on blood pressure drugs or
medication to prevent seizures.
The study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association, compared samples from 120 women who eventually developed
pre-eclampsia to specimens from 118 women who did not develop the
condition.
Women with the lowest placental growth factor levels were nearly 23
times more likely to develop pre-eclampsia before their 37th week of
pregnancy than the rest of the women. Researchers detected low levels
of the protein as early as the 25th week of pregnancy.
"If there were a self-administered test developed, similar to a
pregnancy kit, it could tell women if they're in trouble and to see
their doctor right away," said Dr. Richard Levine, the study's lead
author and research medical officer at the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development, which funded the research.
Levine estimated it would take at least four years to develop such a
test.
Dr. Cathy Spong, chief of the pregnancy and perinatology branch of the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said
researchers have searched for decades for a predictor of pre-eclampsia.
"These findings are very exciting," Spong said. "But just because we
know they're going to develop pre-eclampsia, if it develops early on,
it could still have devastating outcomes. Ideally we'd like to get to
intervention."
Levine said placental growth factor could someday be given to at-risk
women to prevent pre-eclampsia.
--
C, mama to two year old nursling
to pre-eclampsia (as it binds to VEGF and PlGF)...
Test may predict pregnancy complication
By MIKE COLIAS
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO (AP) -- A simple urine test during pregnancy could someday
predict which women are likely to develop dangerously high blood
pressure called pre-eclampsia, a condition that kills hundreds of
mothers-to-be each year in the United States and leads to 15 percent of
all premature births, researchers say.
Pre-eclampsia occurs in as many as 8 percent of U.S. pregnancies, often
striking healthy women without warning, and can lead to seizures,
strokes and kidney damage. The cause is unknown, and there is no
reliable way in use today to predict who will develop it. The only
known cure is to deliver the baby, often prematurely.
But a new study offers hope for the development of a urine test over
the next few years that could identify high-risk women several weeks or
even months before pre-eclampsia develops.
The study found that urine samples from women who eventually developed
pre-eclampsia had extremely low levels of a protein called placental
growth factor, which nurtures blood vessels that support the mother and
fetus.
The same researchers reported last year that blood samples also can
predict the disease. But they said a urine test could allow women to
screen themselves and would be much easier to administer in Third World
countries.
While a screening test would not prevent the disorder, doctors could
monitor at-risk women more closely to prevent complications, and such
patients could, for example, be put on blood pressure drugs or
medication to prevent seizures.
The study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association, compared samples from 120 women who eventually developed
pre-eclampsia to specimens from 118 women who did not develop the
condition.
Women with the lowest placental growth factor levels were nearly 23
times more likely to develop pre-eclampsia before their 37th week of
pregnancy than the rest of the women. Researchers detected low levels
of the protein as early as the 25th week of pregnancy.
"If there were a self-administered test developed, similar to a
pregnancy kit, it could tell women if they're in trouble and to see
their doctor right away," said Dr. Richard Levine, the study's lead
author and research medical officer at the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development, which funded the research.
Levine estimated it would take at least four years to develop such a
test.
Dr. Cathy Spong, chief of the pregnancy and perinatology branch of the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said
researchers have searched for decades for a predictor of pre-eclampsia.
"These findings are very exciting," Spong said. "But just because we
know they're going to develop pre-eclampsia, if it develops early on,
it could still have devastating outcomes. Ideally we'd like to get to
intervention."
Levine said placental growth factor could someday be given to at-risk
women to prevent pre-eclampsia.
--
C, mama to two year old nursling