different profiles between early- and late-onset

[caryn]

...significant differences in angiogenic factors and adiponectin were found between normal and overweight women only in late-onset pre-eclampsia... These data suggest that there are different profiles of angiogenic factors and adipocytokines between women who develop early- and late-onset pre-eclampsia...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20015306

So maybe they'll be able to develop some sort of reliable test that says whether or not you'll get PE earlier or later. Women who develop it earlier have higher levels of some specific chemicals.

It also looks like there's a difference in the chemical profiles between overweight women who develop PE and regular-weight women who develop PE. That probably means that there's a difference in what it is that tips individuals over the threshold. (Anne's cup-of-water analogy works here: each of us has different underlying predispositions to the disease, and preeclampsia is when the cup runneth over...)

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[mellybute]

This is all very interesting Caryn. I read all of these and although my brain tries to wrap itself around it, your translation really helps me :-) Thanks!

[angieb]

Thanks for the interesting read and your translation.

They didn't mention the AFP test, but my early onset my AFP came back positive and so this makes sense to me since it seemed like in the threads where we talked about AFP, a lot of us that had abnormal results had early onset and even HELLP.

[rosalinda]

My AFP came back normal with my daughter and still got severe early onset PE....hmm????

[caryn]

Well, this test wasn't the AFP, but a measure of other soluble factors in the bloodstream.

PE is weird that way -- lots and lots and LOTS of soluble factors are off in the population, but don't have great predictive or diagnostic value -- which means that most of the diagnostic tests they've attempted to devise don't work all that well.

There was a recent news report about a [url="http://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37305"]test[/url] that was going to be both specific and sensitive enough to use, but I don't know when it will be broadly available. Quickly I hope; moving us to a different schedule of care will probably save a lot of lives, since the docs will be waiting for things to go kablooey and so we'll be treated before catastrophe strikes (get steroids on board if they're appropriate, be delivered before gettign really really sick, etc.)