A study involving 1,800 first-time mothers discovered no additional advantage to early prenatal blood sample protein screening.
WHAT: The National Institutes of Health-sponsored large-scale study’s findings indicate that protein analysis performed in the first trimester of pregnancy did not enhance the ability to forecast the factors associated with high blood pressure in pregnant women. Researchers have been examining whether proteins extracted from blood or urine samples could offer this information since there is a pressing need to better anticipate individuals who may develop illnesses associated with high blood pressure during pregnancy, generally known as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. With the use of protein analysis from blood samples taken during the first trimester of pregnancy, this study offers the most data to date.
In this study, 1,850 study external link participants who became pregnant for the first time between 2010 and 2013 had 6,481 proteins examined by researchers. In addition to submitting a blood sample at the time of registration participants underwent study check-ins in the second and third trimesters, following birth, and between two and seven years following their pregnancy. Proteins or their combinations with clinical information, such as maternal age and cardiovascular disease risks, during the early stages of pregnancy, may hold clues for the 753 participants who experienced a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, according to a series of modeling equations that incorporated the protein analysis. Preeclampsia, a marked rise in blood pressure after 20 weeks of pregnancy that can damage organs and be indicated by elevated levels of protein in the urine, and gestational hypertension, a condition characterized by high blood pressure that typically develops after 20 weeks of pregnancy, were among the conditions assessed.
There was no discernible improvement in risk projections for these events using the prediction models that comprised three distinct types of assessments. Even if the models were predictive, the current risk assessment standards used by doctors were not much enhanced. Currently, these requirements include risk factors such being obese, diabetic, having high blood pressure, or becoming pregnant later in life.
Researchers also discovered that participants were twice as unlikely to have a hypertensive disease of pregnancy if they had higher levels of quiescin sulfhydryl oxidase1 (QSOX1), a protein suggestive of cellular development, during the early stages of pregnancy. However additional research has connected elevated QSOX1 levels in late pregnancy to heightened risks. The researchers conclude that this finding may help guide future investigations into associated pathways of pregnancy-related hypertension diseases.
About 10% to 15% of pregnant women suffer from hypertensive disorders, which raise the risk of pregnancy complications, heart attacks, strokes, and, in extreme situations, death.Even though the result is unfavorable the authors point out that it indicates the need for further methods to more accurately identify women who may have high blood pressure during pregnancy.
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Heart Lung, Blood, and Heart Institute (NHLBI) provided funding for the study.
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