Preeclampsia complicates about 5% of all pregnancies worldwide. It is a major cause of maternal, fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. The aim of this systematic review was to study the literature on the predictive potential of screening for preeclampsia based on serum markers and uterine artery Doppler velocity waveform assessment. First-trimester uterine artery Doppler can identify over half of women who will develop preeclampsia. Detection rates may be increased by a combination with maternal serum markers. In screening for early preeclampsia, the detection rate for a 10% falsepositive rate was 96.3% for a combination of maternal factors, soluble endoglin, placental growth factor and uterine artery lowest Pulsatility Index. First trimester placental protein 13 predicts preeclampsia in women at increased a priori risk and predicts early-onset better than late-onset disease. The Fetal Medicine Foundation has released in 2009 the new software to allow calculation of risks for preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. Uterine artery Doppler velocimetry in combination with some biochemical markers seems to be an effective first-trimester screening tool for preeclampsia and in particular early-onset preeclampsia.

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