Urine test can detect pregnancy threat

The warning levels were apparent as early as 25 weeks into pregnancy and, on average, about six weeks before symptoms appeared. Although pre-eclampsia can be fatal to the mother, the greater risk — at least in the developed world — is to the baby. Because the only known cure is delivery, women often must give birth prematurely. That puts the baby at risk for myriad complications, including respiratory distress and mental retardation.

‘‘If we can identify the women who are going to get pre-eclampsia before they get pre-eclampsia, then these women could be monitored very carefully and brought into the hospital at the first sign of high blood pressure,’’ said Dr Richard J. Levine of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s epidemiology division.Levine is lead author of the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers compared urine samples from 120 women who developed pre-eclampsia with samples from 118 women who did not. Among those who developed it, low levels of placental growth factor were found between 25th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. Differences were more pronounced by weeks 29 through 36.

‘‘The good news is, because it’s detected in the urine, it’s easy to monitor in patients,’’ said Dr S. Ananth Karumanchi, a nephrologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and another study author. —LAT-WP