Purdue develops at home wearable preeclampsia testing device

supine pressor test

Researchers at Purdue University are working on an app-based preeclampsia testing that enables pregnant women to use a smartphone to detect her risk of developing preeclampsia.

The team, led by Craig Goergen, an assistant professor in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is modifying the way the underused tool called the supine pressor test records the Blood Pressure for a pregnant woman.

“We hope this will allow us to predict and prevent preeclampsia and reduce the number of children born prematurely each year. This could also reduce the long-term health complications for mothers,” Goergen said.

Other team members include George Wodicka, the Dane A. Miller Head of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue, and Kirk Forster, a senior research engineer at the Weldon School.

The supine pressor test measures a woman’s blood pressure in two different positions and the difference predicts her risk of developing the disease. But, to carry out the test, a woman must go visit the hospital or other healthcare providers, not an easy task in some parts of the world.

The researchers are working to combine available existing technologies such as smartphones, a conventional inflatable blood pressure cuff, and a wireless accelerometer (which measures body position) to build an innovative prototype that will detect preeclampsia before it develops.

  

A supine pressor test is an old, valuable tool that assesses blood flow through the kidney, and 90 percent of women with a positive test eventually develop preeclampsia. The women can send the test results to a doctor's office, a health-care system or a centralized network for the results to be read.

Based on the results the women can receive advice about prevention and early management to avoid the development of terminal consequences.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 10 percent of all maternal deaths in Africa and Asia are associated with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and 25 percent of all maternal deaths in Latin America. Most of those deaths are avoidable, according to the WHO.

The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology issued a report last year estimating the costs to the U.S. health-care system for preeclampsia at $2.18 billion for the first 12 months after birth  — $1.03 billion for mothers, and $1.15 billion for babies.

The researchers received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November.

While the Gates Foundation’s goal is to help women in developing countries, Goergen said the device the Purdue researchers are working on also could help women in inner cities and rural areas of the United States and other developed countries.

Here is video by the lead scientist Craig Goergen about the app and wearable device

Purdue News Release

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