Peter von Dadelszen

FRANZCOG, DPHIL, FRCSC, MBBCH, BMedSc, FRCOG

Affiliate Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Professor of Global Women's Health, Department of Women and Children's Health, School of Life Course Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London

Pre-eclampsia ('toxaemia' of pregnancy; high blood pressure and the loss of protein in the urine) is the most common cause of maternal death in North America, and the second leading cause of maternal death globally. It also causes an excess burden of illness and death for fetuses, especially when pregnancies are affected remote from term. The process of pre-eclampsia seems to involve inappropriate activation of the immune system, causing inflammation and organ damage.

We are investigating what aspect of the inflammatory response is specific to pre-eclampsia, how to quantify the multi-organ consequences of that inflammatory response, and how to modify the response to safely prolong pregnancies affected remote from term and to accelerate the recovery from the inflammation postnatally. In low and middle income countries, we are investigating community-level interventions to improve monitoring, prevention and treatment of women with pre-eclampsia to reduce the burden of life-ending, life-altering, and life-threatening events that complicate the pregnancies of these women.

In addition, we are studying the relationship between a woman’s immune cells in the womb (uterus) and the successful formation of the afterbirth (placenta).