Pre-eclampsia is pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. It is one of the most common life- threatening conditions occurring in pregnancy. It occurs 1 in 50 pregnancies. High blood pressure can be extremely dangerous to both, the mother and baby.

Currently, the only cure is delivery. The delivery needs to be timed carefully as it needs to balance the condition of the mother and the maturity of the baby.

The probability of developing pre-eclampsia is increased by some factors including high body mass index (BMI), first pregnancy, and having any previous personal and family history of pre-eclampsia.

In addition to your 11-13 week scan you can opt to have a pre-eclampsia pregnancy screening.

Better maternal and fetal monitoring if detected high risk would lead to the early detection of pre-eclampsia from the clinical signs of the disease and where necessary medication can be given.

Pre-eclampsia screening process involves an ultrasound scan that measures the placental blood flow(uterine artery doppler) at 11-13 weeks of pregnancy in combination with mean arterial blood pressure, maternal history, placental growth factor (PLGF) and serum PAPP-A maternal blood marker. These are combined by a computer algorithm to get a numerical value. These are then categorised in low risk and high risk.