Their findings showed that at the same time that urinary PIGF levels are dropping among the women who go on to develop preeclampsia, levels remain stable among the pregnant women with the other two conditions. "This new study provides us with another important piece of evidence as we work toward developing the means to diagnose, and eventually to treat, this serious condition," says Benjamin P. Sachs, MBBS, DPH, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at BIDMC and an investigator on the study. "This is of especially critical importance in other regions of the world where preeclampsia poses a significant threat to the health of mothers and their infants."
Adds Karumanchi, "Diagnosing this condition earlier could help women with preeclampsia avoid major complications. A simple urine test could help predict the onset of this disease one to two months before the onset of clinical symptoms and that could make a tremendous difference in outcomes for patients, in particular those women who have limited access to specialized medical care."
Study co-authors in addition to Sachs include BIDMC investigators Chun Lam, MD, Franklin H. Epstein, MD, Vikas P. Sukhatme, MD, PhD, and Kee-Hak Lim, MD; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development investigators Richard J. Levine, MD, MPH, Kai F. Yu, PhD, and Anastasia L. Blink, MPH; Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital; Cong Qian, MS, of Allied Technology Group, Rockville, MD; and Baha M. Sibai, MD, of the University of Cincinn
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Contact: Bonnie Prescott
bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu
617-667-7306
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
4-Jan-2005