Assessing the onset of pre-eclampsia in the hospital day unit: summary of the pre-eclampsia guideline (PRECOG II)

Pre-eclampsia remains a leading cause of maternal death, with 72% of pre-eclampsia cases associated with substandard care.1 One in 10 pregnant women develop partial signs or symptoms (73 000 a year in the United Kingdom); about 20% of these progress to pre-eclampsia.2 3 This article summarises recommendations from the Pre-Eclampsia Community Guideline (PRECOG) Group4 under the auspices of the charity Action on Pre-eclampsia. The recommendations cover the assessment of women with suspected pre-eclampsia by hospital midwives in day assessment units and complements our previous community based advice.5 6 PRECOG recommendations (see table 1⇓ for definitions used) are based on systematic review of evidence and expert consensus, graded A, B, C, or D; a “good practice point”(GPP) is based on the guideline development group’s experience (box 1). The grading is shown in parentheses after each recommendation. View this table: Table 1 Definitions used in the PRECOG recommendations #### Box 1 Levels of evidence on which recommendations are based*† ##### Grading of recommendations ##### Grading (level) of evidence