Preeclampsia Foundation tackles the biomarker adoption gap in high-stakes pregnancy care
Launches new provider resource to support clinicians to adopt new FDA-cleared blood tests
The Preeclampsia Foundation has launched a new educational resource for obstetricians and gynecologists to help them understand predictive and diagnostic biomarker testing for preeclampsia — and, crucially, how to use it in real clinical settings.
Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure and signs of organ dysfunction. It can escalate quickly, and the only definitive way to stop it is to deliver the baby and placenta — a decision that can be devastating when it happens very early in pregnancy.
Right now in the US, clinicians still largely screen and diagnose preeclampsia using risk-factor checklists, blood pressure readings and urine protein measures. These tools are standard practice, but they can leave uncertainty in borderline cases. At the same time, a small number of FDA-cleared biomarker ratio tests are now available for hospitalized pregnant patients.
The Foundation’s new resource focuses on two placental proteins increasingly used to add clarity to that decision-making:
Placenta Growth Factor (PlGF), involved in healthy placental and maternal blood vessel function
soluble FMS-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), which counteracts blood vessel formation and can drive endothelial dysfunction
A blood serum sFlt-1/PlGF ratio test is designed to support clinical management by helping clinicians assess whether a patient is likely to progress to severe disease.
“This publicly available resource, developed in collaboration with our Medical Advisory Board and industry stakeholders, provides an overview of how these tests function in clinical settings and the scientific evidence linking placental health to preeclampsia,” said Eleni Tsigas, CEO of the Preeclampsia Foundation.
“Advanced biomarker tests can help predict progression to severe preeclampsia, especially for patients where diagnosis is uncertain using traditional blood pressure and urine protein assessments alone.”
An ongoing adoption gap
The Foundation notes that two in-hospital ratio tests — from Thermo Fisher Scientific and Roche Diagnostics — have received FDA clearance for use in hospitalized pregnant patients in the US.
But regulatory clearance does not automatically mean widespread use.
For decades, prenatal care has been built around a simple model: check blood pressure, look for protein in the urine, ask about symptoms, and increase monitoring as pregnancy progresses. Most clinicians are trained to rely on this system and on their own judgment to decide when a patient needs to be delivered.
Because delivery remains the only definitive way to stop preeclampsia, some doctors question how much a biomarker test changes the treatment plan. If the ultimate options are still close monitoring or delivery, they may feel comfortable making decisions based on traditional clinical signs alone.
There are also practical barriers. Not every hospital has the laboratory equipment needed to run these tests on site. In some cases, samples must be sent to external labs, which can delay results. Clinicians must also understand what specific ratio thresholds mean and how those results should influence care — and that learning curve takes time. Reimbursement policies can also shape whether a test is routinely offered.
The downloadable guide covers clinical background, pathophysiology and practical use cases for these ratio tests, with the aim of helping clinicians understand not only what the results mean, but how they may be incorporated into real-world decision-making.
Why the Foundation is stepping in
For more than a decade, the Preeclampsia Foundation has advocated for advanced biomarker testing, including convening biomarker consortiums, engaging researchers and industry leaders, and educating policymakers. Tsigas also serves on the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Biomarkers Consortium for Risk Stratification and Detection of Early-Onset Preeclampsia.
The provider guide sits alongside the Foundation’s broader educational materials, including an “About Biomarkers” explainer, a short patient infographic video (English and Spanish) on how preeclampsia is monitored and tested, and an “Ask About Preeclampsia Tests” tear pad intended to support patient–provider conversations.
The Foundation’s message is that biomarker testing shouldn’t be viewed as a magic answer — but as an additional tool that can help clinicians avoid both under- and over-intervention.
In practice, that can mean helping identify patients who are likely to deteriorate soon (so care teams can monitor, plan, and reduce emergency scenarios), while also reassuring clinicians when a patient may not be on an immediate trajectory toward severe disease.
The aim of the resource is to make the science and the “how to use this” piece more accessible to everyday OB-GYNs — not just specialists — at a moment when the tests exist, but familiarity and practical confidence may lag behind.