Executive Summary: Preeclampsia Research

January 2006, Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON, researched and written for client

Project Overview

The focus of the attached research is to find “key relevant medical articles” on the subject of preeclampsia, with a focus on information regarding antithrombin and preeclampsia.

The HELLP syndrome, a close “sister” to preeclampsia, is another topic that researchers like to link together with the studies on preeclampsia, itself, or antithrombin. A small portion of the research covers this subject also.

Research Methodology

The traditional route to medical research is by using Pub Med. This route and a new (beta) Google search, called Google Scholar, were utilized. A large amount of information was provided, therefore, the limits set for articles narrowed to those only going back five (5) years.

Also chosen to be included is both a group of articles from the year 2000 that looked to be important to the focus of the research and a second group of articles, “Articles mentioned in the Articles Above”, that obviously influenced the researchers of our focus topic. These are found in separate folders in the “zipped” material.

Included in the Pub Med and Google Scholar search is forty-six (46) articles on the subject of antithrombin and preeclampsia. The file folder titled “Articles from 2000” presents eight (8) articles. And, the file folder titled “Articles mentioned in Articles Above” offers thirteen (13) articles.

Six (6) articles on the subject of the HELLP syndrome are displayed in the file folder titled “HELLP”.

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Alternative databases and web sites have also been explored for any articles on the focus topic. The Cochrane Library’s Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews revealed two articles of note. Reach both articles and their abstracts in the file folder titled “Cochrane Library”.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality produces several health pages starting at

http://www.ahrq.gov . The web page featuring women’s issues, AHRQ Women’s Health Page, conveys information via documents on research in several areas. Featured in the section titled “Maternal Health & Pregnancy”, a document called “Chronic Hypertension During Pregnancy” can be found. In this document, preeclampsia is mentioned and the management of this and other pregnancy complications are discussed. In spite of the ease at which the document can be reached, it is not feasible to get a copy of it from the web site.

KOL Identification Methodology

The research easily established key opinion leaders among the authors of the articles. Twenty (20) KOLs have made the list. The KOLs have been identified using a three tiered method.

The first tier of researcher/authors is the most important to the focus topic. These prominent men and women have been selected by being mentioned as a contributor in more than one of the articles and/or publishing articles on antithrombin and preeclampsia.

The second tier researcher/authors, still an important classification, have been mentioned as contributors in those articles cited by the first tier group. These authors’ work clearly influenced the further research in the focus topic.

The third tier of researcher/authors denotes those people who have written on the topic of the HELLP syndrome.

The KOLs are arranged alphabetically in the data listing along with a column noting the tier in which they should be considered.

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Additional Notes

Among these seventy-five (75) articles are several different key issues. In the general research you can find studies from preeclamptic pregnancies and thrombophilic disorders to Activated Protein C resistance. In the cases of articles about the HELLP syndrome, the articles were separated into a specific file folder.

The file folders titled “Articles from 2000”, “Articles mentioned in Articles Above”, and “Cochrane Library” contain a variety of subjects all associated to the focus topic of antithrombin and preeclampsia.