Screening for pre-eclampsia
It is demonstrable that early identification and close monitoring of high-risk women produces better maternal and fetal outcomes, so effective screening is an urgent research priority. Historically, screening took the form of regular blood pressure and urine checks throughout pregnancy for all women. In the UK today the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends using maternal history, age, body mass index (BMI) and number of fetuses to select women for treatment with low-dose aspirin (NICE, 2010). Using a risk-factor-based approach like this will identify a large number of women, most of whom do not go on to develop pre-eclampsia, and miss the considerable cohort of ‘low risk’ women who do manifest the disease. A number of novel strategies are under investigation.