Pre-eclampsia remains a common complication during pregnancy, but the methods used to initially determine the presence of the disease still rely on simple non-specific parameters. Testing for placental growth factor has huge potential to improve management of a condition that is challenging to diagnose explains Dawn Hannah, clinical educator at Quidel.
A relatively new and more targeted approach to predicting the risk of pre-eclampsia is placental growth factor (PlGF), either in a laboratory or at the point of patient care, where it can provide results in as little as 15 minutes. This simple and rapid approach is helping to prevent the potentially life-threatening complications of undiagnosed pre-eclampsia, alleviating the burden of unnecessary admissions on maternity wards, reassuring expectant mothers and their families, and reducing potential litigation costs for healthcare providers.
The impact of pre-eclampsia
Pre-eclampsia is defined by the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy as gestational hypertension accompanied by significant proteinuria, arising after the 20th week of gestation in a previously normotensive woman.1,2 Pregnancy-related hypertensive conditions – predominantly, but not only pre-eclampsia – affect between 2% and 10% of single pregnancies worldwide,2-4 depending on the demographics of each region, and around 6% in the UK,5 with a higher incidence in women of colour.6
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