Mass. General Doctors Study Promising New Preeclampsia Treatment

BOSTON (CBS) - It's a new way to treat one of the most common pregnancy complications, preeclampsia. Currently, doctors have no choice but to deliver the babies of women with preeclampsia, but as Dr. Mallika Marshall explains, local doctors are using a new method to help bring those babies closer to term.

"She's been so far a very good girl," a good girl indeed but Meghan Sise hasn't even met her baby girl yet. Thirty-nine weeks pregnant, the Massachusetts General Hospital nephrologist says there was one potential complication in particular that worried her, preeclampsia. It's a condition which can cause kidney failure, liver failure, high blood pressure and seizures in the mom.

"My biggest fear would be a preterm delivery and you're deciding what has to happen for mom," says Meghan, "But it's not necessarily the best thing for baby. That's the decision that every woman is so scared of."

About 200,000 women in the U.S. suffer from preeclampsia every year. The only treatment is to deliver the baby which isn't such a big deal if the pregnancy is at term, but if mom is only six or seven months along, it's more of a concern, says Dr. Jeff Ecker, a high risk obstetrician at Mass. General. "There's the morbidity that goes along with that but also the real chance of a baby dying from being born early," explains Dr. Ecker.

To change that doctors at Mass. General are studying a new therapy similar to dialysis where a mom's blood is removed through a catheter, run through a machine that eliminates a factor associated with preeclampsia and is then returned back to mom.

"We showed the device lowers the levels, reduces blood pressure, lowers protein in the urine and in women who were able to tolerate a few treatments, we were able to prolong pregnancy," says Dr. Ravi Thadhani, the Chief of Nephrology at Mass. General.

Dr. Thadhani says they were able to prolong pregnancy in some women by at least a couple of weeks, which is a long time in fetal development.

"It would make a real difference in the lives of a lot of families and the lives of a lot of newborns," says Dr. Ecker.

And while Meghan is probably out of the woods, she is excited for other moms who could benefit.

"You're doing something that doesn't harm the mom and potentially lengthens the pregnancy," says Meghan. "It's going be to a huge relief for moms."

So far the therapy has been tested on 11 women in Europe and researchers are now planning larger studies to confirm the safety and to demonstrate that it can, in fact, prolong pregnancy. If that's the case, researchers will then apply for FDA approval to make it more widely available.