Listavistosa-nfasis11 Vall d'Hebron University Hospital has added to its portfolio of services a new technique for predicting preeclampsia in the short term through a blood test. The technique has been validated in an international multicentre study, recently published in thehttp://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414838" New England Journal of Medicine, in which Dr. Elisa Llurba has participated as the only Spanish researcher, who is from the group of Maternal and Foetal Medicine at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and responsible for the Placental Insufficiency Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. Listavistosa-nfasis11 The observational study was conducted on 1,050 pregnant women from 24 to 36 weeks, with suspected preeclampsia, a medical complication of pregnancy that can lead to serious problems for both mother and fetus. The clinical suspicion of the disease is based on hypertension, proteinuria, oedema or headache. According to Dr. Llurba, "the symptoms for the disease are very nonspecific, since over 70% of cases, patients presenting symptoms do not develop preeclampsia." Instead, she adds, "sometimes we are late to diagnose pregnant women who did not manifest these symptoms." Listavistosa-nfasis11 The study takes from previous research, which showed that women with preeclampsia have higher levels of an anti-angiogenic factor (SFlt-1), and the levels of an angiogenic factor (PIGF), diminished. The goal of researchers with this work, called PROGNOSIS, has been to set a breakpoint in the ratio of the two factors that determine the risk of disease in the coming weeks, as well as other serious consequences such as stillbirth or foetal growth restriction. Listavistosa-nfasis11 "We have shown that pregnant women who have symptoms of preeclampsia and have a ratio below 38 of the two proteins analyzed in blood, will not suffer the disease in the next four weeks," explains Dr. Llurba. This ratio has demonstrated a 99% reliability to rule out the disease in the seven days after the blood test. As for the 4 weeks' prediction, the new technique showed that pregnant women with a ratio exceeding 38 had preeclampsia in about 35% of cases, or complications related to placental insufficiency in an additional 10%. This determination has been validated to be done with the Cobas laboratory platform from Roche Diagnostics. Listavistosa-nfasis11 The advantage of these markers with respect to the conventional techniques available so far is that they detect the cause of preeclampsia, which is the placental insufficiency. Therefore, they can also be used in the prediction of patients with risk and to determine those patients that will make the most serious complications that sometimes involve fatal complications. Listavistosa-nfasis11 Preeclampsia affects about 5% of pregnant women and is the second leading cause of maternal death and a major cause of maternal and foetal complications. As a result of these findings, the obstetricians intermediate care Unit of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, led by Dr. Anna Suy, will apply the new technique to the riskiest pregnant being admitted at the unit, and some pregnant women with suspected preeclampsia visited in outpatient clinics, in order to avoid admissions, unnecessary tests and deliveries caused before time. With this addition, which is part of the Programme for the improvement of clinical practice through research, Dr. Llurba concludes that "we will be better at concentrating resources in patients and fetuses who most need it".