Preeclampsia is a life-threatening high blood pressure condition that causes heart failure, stroke and premature birth. It is one of the main causes of maternal death. Echocardiography can diagnose and determine heart function abnormalities otherwise undetectable in pregnant people. This project will shed light on the causes of preeclampsia. It continues studies previously undertaken in the US, South Africa and Australia. It aims to further strengthen a new theory explaining the causes of preeclampsia – the constant stimulus adaptive response model of preeclampsia.
The project will use echocardiography, on pregnant people with preeclampsia before they are treated, to determine primary heart function. The potential impacts of this study are to understand the physiology underpinning new onset high blood pressure in pregnant people, a change in paradigm of our understanding of the causes of preeclampsia, bringing echocardiography into the mainstream management of people with preeclampsia, a likely reduction in long term complications of preeclampsia, to advance the use of echocardiography in obstetric hospitals, to strengthen collaborative links between the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston US, and the Joan Kirn Women’s and Children’s Sunshine Hospital (Western Health) and the University of Melbourne, and to create collaborations between the medical specialties of cardiology, obstetrics and anesthesiology for the improved care of pregnant people.
Professor Alicia Dennis, Research Scholar, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA; Joan Kirner Women's and Children's Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne; Department of Critical Care, University of Melbourne; School of Medicine, Faculty of Health, Deakin University.
The project was awarded A$69,828 funding through the ANZCA research grants program for 2025.