The PREVENT-PE trial, ledby researchers from King's College London and NHS King's College Hospital, is the first study to show that screening for preeclampsia at 36 weeks of pregnancy, followed by a risk-based early delivery plan, can reduce the later incidence of preeclampsia by 30% compared with usual care.
More than 8,000 women from King's College Hospital and the NHS Medway Trust participated in the trial. The women were randomly divided into two groups:
Intervention group: Assessment of the risk of preeclampsia, followed by planned premature birth according to the level of risk.
Monitoring group: The usual care at full term of pregnancy.
A planned birth at week 37, 38, 39 or 40 was offered to women at high risk, while low-risk women received the usual care in accordance with hospital protocols and UK standards of care.
The results showed a decrease in the incidence of preeclampsia from 5.6% to 3.9%, a reduction of 30%, without an increase in emergency cesarean births or the need for neonatal care.
Professor Kypros Nicolaides, founder and president of the Fetal Medicine Foundation, said: "This reduction is greater than what can be achieved with aspirin and represents an important step towards improving the health of mother and child."
Dr. Argyro Singelaki, Associate Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, added: "A personalized, risk-based approach demonstrates that planned early care is practical, acceptable, and delivers tangible results for women, children, and maternity services."
Preeclampsia is high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy, most often in the later stages. It affects 2% to 8% of pregnancies worldwide and can be life-threatening, causing approximately 46,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 fetal and neonatal deaths annually.
Preeclampsia typically develops after the 20th week of pregnancy or shortly after delivery. While aspirin can reduce the risk if taken before the 37th week, there are no treatments available to reduce this risk once pregnancy is full term (37–42 weeks).
The results were published in the journal "The Lancet".
