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Pre-eclampsia research at London research centre

Our work with pre-eclampsia involved studies in both the clinic and laboratory. The focus was on finding a way to predict which women will develop pre-eclampsia, to accurately diagnose it, and to find a way to stop at-risk women from developing the condition. For more information about this pregnancy condition, visit the pre-eclampsia page in Tommy's pregnancy information section.

Aim of pre-eclampsia study

Accurate prediction of pre-eclampsia is important to help enable monitoring and intervention to be targeted to those women most at risk of developing the condition.  Currently, all pregnant women are screened for pre-eclampsia resulting in over-investigation of many, whilst those who are most in need may be missed or overlooked because of the inadequacy of current monitoring. Tommy's researchers aimed to identify the most effective blood markers and screening techniques to best predict those women most likely to develop pre-eclampsia.

Results of pre-eclampsia study

We have identified markers which predict which women will develop pre-eclampsia (a fatal disease affecting both mother and baby during pregnancy which kills more than 100,000 women around the world each year) before the clinical onset of the disease. This means we can target these women with treatments before the onset of the disease to prolong the pregnancy to a viable stage and minimise the risk to the mother and unborn baby.