A new report details a comprehensive strategy to prevent preeclampsia, which affects about 250,000 pregnant women a year in the United States and 10 million worldwide.
Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal mortality and premature births. The report, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, developed by a working group of clinicians, researchers, patients, advocates, and payers, recommends daily low-dose aspirin, surveillance, behavioral strategies, patient and provider education, long-term follow-up, and addressing social determinants of health.
Titled “Care plan for individuals at risk for preeclampsia: Shared approach to education, strategies for prevention, surveillance and follow up,” the report includes recommendations for providers and for patients at moderate to high risk of preeclampsia.
Top recommendations for providers include performing a risk assessment, including social determinants of health, medication recommendations (including daily aspirin and antihypertensive therapy), and behavioral recommendations (including specific information about diet, exercise, and sleep.)
The recommendations for patients include asking providers about aspirin use, checking blood pressure at home, and reporting any readings greater than 140/90. For those with BPs measuring 140/90 mm Hg or higher, the plan recommends antihypertensive therapy. The recommendations include making changes to diet, exercise, and sleep in consultation with providers.
Home blood pressure checks controversial
James Roberts, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine researcher at the Magee-Women’s Research Institute at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and lead author on the paper, told this publication the home blood pressure checks may be the most controversial item in the report as not all insurers cover the at-home equipment.
In this report, the authors write that the working group “strongly advocates that payers of health care services cover the modest expense of home blood pressure determination including equipment and training.”
Dr. Roberts is the founding principal investigator of the Global Pregnancy Collaboration (CoLab), a consortium of 40 centers and one of the groups leading the creation of this report.
He said that while most of the recommendations are already recommended in guidelines, the report puts the preeclampsia plan into easy-to-read steps and downloadable checklists and compiles the evidence all in one place.
Dr. Roberts said the working group hopes this report will be adapted into guidelines developed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and made part of electronic health records.
So far, the authors say, a comprehensive, integrated preeclampsia care plan has not been widely adopted.
Fewer than half of patients at risk receive aspirin
The coauthors note that “today, most pregnant individuals at increased risk do not receive even one of the interventions to prevent preeclampsia. For example, less than half of high-risk patients receive low-dose aspirin.”
A big part of this plan, Dr. Roberts said, calls for further educating both providers and patients.
Vesna Garovic, MD, PhD, a preeclampsia specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was not part of the working group, said, “This is the first comprehensive plan that provides a safe, cost-effective approach to reduce the risk of preeclampsia in individuals at moderate to high risk for this condition who qualify to receive aspirin for prevention.”
Dr. Garovic said the plan is novel in several ways, including the multispecialty input that also includes patients and advocates. Also, she says, it can be easily included in electronic health records and routine care of patients.
“The recommendations that were made, other than self-monitoring of blood pressure, are already standard of care. It will be important to understand as to which extent this comprehensive program, compared to the standard approach, would reduce further the risk of preeclampsia,” Dr. Garovic said. “A prospective, adequately powered comparative study would not only address this question, but will investigate compliance of providers and pregnant women with this shared approach, as well as patient satisfaction.”
The authors note the approach presented is for care in developed countries and that low- and middle-income countries would need to tailor the plan. The Care Plan is also meant only for prevention and is not meant to guide care for women who have developed preeclampsia.
Funding was provided to The Precia Group and the Global Pregnancy Collaboration to assemble this care plan by Mirvie, which is developing a biochemical predictor for preeclampsia. Precia and CoLab used a portion of these funds to support the time of some of the authors. Mirvie had no part in selecting authors or in the content of the manuscript.
Several authors received an honorarium for participation in the Working Group that developed the Care Plan. Two coauthors are site principal investigators overseeing sample collection on a Mirvie project. The remaining authors and Dr. Garovic report no conflicts of interest.
This article originally appeared on MDedge.com, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
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