A new blood test can determine the risk of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy.Photo:Getty /iStockphoto
Getty /iStockphoto
The FDA hasapproveda new blood test that can predict the development of severe preeclampsia during pregnancy — and the test is rolling out in U.S. hospitals now.
The novel biomarker test “can predict with 94% accuracy whether or not a pregnant person will develop severe preeclampsia in the next two weeks,” according to a report inHealth.
A new blood test can determine the risk of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy.Getty
Getty
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Symptoms can include severe headaches, pain, nausea, and shortness of vision. If a pregnant patient hashigh blood pressure, their doctor will order a blood test or a 24-hour urine sample to determine if they’ve developed preeclampsia. Meanwhile, the new blood test can deliver results from a hospital’s lab in as little as 30 minutes.
The only way to resolve preeclampsia is to induce delivery.
But with this new blood test, doctors can “predict who will have severe preeclampsia,”Anum Minhas, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who specializes in cardio-obstetrics and cardiovascular disease in women, toldHealth.
“In that case, those women may be hospitalized early to be monitored or need to have their babies early.”
Preeclampsia can develop inanypregnancy;Kim Kardashianwas diagnosed with preeclampsia when she was pregnant with daughterNorth, now 10, whichshe saidcaused her body to “swell uncontrollably.”
“I gained 60 lbs. and delivered almost 6 weeks early and I cried every single day over what was happening to my body mainly from the pressures of being constantly compared to what society considered a healthy pregnant person should look like,” themom of four,now 42, said.
Beyoncé‘ alsosuffered from preeclampsiawhile pregnant with twinsSir and Rumiin 2017, and opened up about her challenging pregnancy in her Netflix documentaryHomecoming.
“I had an extremely difficult pregnancy. I had high blood pressure. I developed toxemia, preeclampsia, and in the womb, one of my babies’ heartbeats paused a few times, so I had to get an emergency C-section,” Beyoncé, now 41, said.
Olympian Tori Bowie died from pregnancy complications in June.FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty
Just last month, Olympic track and field gold medalist Tori Bowie was only 32 when shedied from childbirth complications— which included “respiratory distress and eclampsia.”
Eclampsia is a “rare but serious complication of preeclampsia,”according to the Cleveland Clinic.
But while anyone can develop preeclampsia, there are certain risk factors that make the illness more likely, such as being overweight, being older than age 40 — and being Black.
TheCDC reportsthat the rate of preeclampsia is 60% higher in Black patients — and they suffer more dire outcomes, as “Black women more likely to…experience poorer outcomes associated with the condition, such askidney damage and death.”
“This disease doesn’t discriminate based on race but our health system sometimes does,” Tina Liedtky, president of clinical diagnostics at the company that developed the new blood test test, Thermo Fisher Scientific, toldHealth.
“These tests allow for an objective measure of what is going on in a woman’s body and that can make a difference in saving the child and the mother’s life or not.”
source: people.com
