Etiopathogenesis, prediction, and prevention of preeclampsia

Hypertensive disorders are a major cause of maternal death. Preeclampsia (PE) affects about 5% of pregnancies and is associated to high cardiovascular death risk. Understanding of its origin and cause is difficult and many etiologies have been proposed. So far, little can be done for real prevention and the only treatment is pregnancy interruption, increasing the child’s risk for prematurity complications. Early markers of disease are a promising path for understanding the pathogenesis and developing new strategies for prediction and eventually disease prevention.