St. Thomas' Hospital, London

“Downton Abbey” devotees may still be grieving over Lady Sybil’s death from eclampsia in last January’s PBS Masterpiece episode. But was her eclampsia due to a toxicity or placental hypertension?  In real life, it is the hypertension that poses this life-threatening condition (though the drama correctly identified the historical understanding); preeclampsia is the stalker which precedes, and early diagnosis of preeclampsia would be vital to saving the mother’s life and the child’s too.  Researchers at St. Thomas’ Hospital (London) report in this piece that a protein marker, placental growth factor, is a highly accurate indicator, both positive and negative, of preeclampsia.  MORE

Image Credit: Flickr St. Thomas’ Hospital