NICE recommended pre-eclampsia check will save lives | Fieldfisher
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NICE recommended pre-eclampsia check will save lives

A smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair is wearing a black jacket and a floral blouse. She is standing in front of a blurred background that appears to be an outdoor view with greenery and a cloudy sky.
Jane Weakley
29/03/2022
A pregnant woman lies on a bed while undergoing fetal monitoring. She is wearing a white outfit with blue straps around her belly connected to monitoring equipment, and has an intravenous line attached to her hand. Her other hand rests on her stomach.
In new draft guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that the NHS implement a simple blood test for pregnant women to spot life-threatening pre-eclampsia early.

The placental growth factor (PLGF) test measures the health of the placenta, which provides nutrients and oxygen to the baby, which can alert medics to potential problems. Pre-eclampsia currently affects around 6 per cent of pregnancies.

PLGF is the protein that helps develop new blood vessels in the placenta.

Abnormally low levels can indicate that the placenta is not developing sufficiently.

The test, already practised in many hospitals, can be used in conjunction with other checks to identify pre-eclampsia quickly. It can give a same-day result, offering women reassurance or alerting midwives and doctors to the need for close monitoring and extra care for women who need it. If the test is normal, pre-eclampsia is unlikely to develop over the next week or so.

Read more about pre-eclampsia testing

In negligence cases involving pre-eclampsia, generally very clear signs are missed, with devastating results. In one such case, baby L was delivered at 33 weeks by emergency caesarean section due to pre-eclampsia. He had suffered brain injury (periventricular leucomalacia, PVL) due to hypoxia from placental insufficiency that caused intrauterine growth restriction and pre-eclampsia. Baby L has gone on to develop learning difficulties.

Baby L's mother was at risk of developing pre-eclampsia due to residual renal disease from recurrent childhood urinary infections. While in this case there should have been increased monitoring and intervention because of the renal history, using the PLGF test would likely have identified the pre-eclampsia earlier.   

Read more about birth injury claims.