Scientists in the UK have made a breakthrough, which could lead to a new test for the dangerous pregnancy complication, pre-eclampsia.

With pre-eclampsia, a woman's blood pressure can reach dangerously high levels and protein is present in her urine. The condition tends to occur during the second half of a pregnancy.

It accounts for almost one in four maternal deaths in Europe each year and over 500,000 infant deaths annually worldwide.

While women who have previously had the condition are at an increased risk of it in subsequent pregnancies, there is currently no way of knowing who is at risk among first-time mothers.

However, scientists in Manchester have identified proteins in the blood that may be able to predict if a woman, who is pregnant for the first time, is at risk.

They analysed samples that had been collected from women when they were 15 weeks pregnant. There are usually no clinical signs of pre-eclampsia this early on in a pregnancy.

They found that proteins in the blood of women who went on to develop pre-eclampsia were different from women who did not develop the complication.

Three of these proteins were then studied more in a larger group of women who were pregnant. Two of the proteins - PSG5 and PSG9 - were found to be as good a predictor of pre-eclampsia as the current best marker - placental growth factor.

Previously, these two proteins had never been linked to the risk of pre-eclampsia.

"We hope that these two new markers will be of benefit in the future for women at risk from pre-eclampsia to allow early intervention and/or closer monitoring.

"We also hope to understand the biology of the disease better by determining why these proteins are higher in women with pre-eclampsia and whether they have a role in the development of the placenta," explained Dr Jenny Myers of the University of Manchester.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.

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