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ORPHA:244242

HELLP syndrome

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets in pregnancy · Hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelets syndrome

Publications

9,974

Trials

13

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,144

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare hemorrhagic disorder due to an acquired platelet anomaly characterized by hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and thrombocytopenia that affects pregnant or post-partum women, and is frequently associated with severe preeclampsia. Symptoms are variable, typically including right upper quadrant or epigastric abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, excessive weight gain, generalized edema, hypertension, general malaise, right shoulder pain, backache, and/or headache. Hepatic hemorrhage and rupture, renal failure, and pulmonary edema can result in maternal and/or fetal death.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (3)

hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets in pregnancy · hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelet count syndrome · hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelets syndrome

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

2/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    9,974 matched papers (5,998 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO

  4. Animal modelNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance

  5. Orphan designationNot checked

    FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    13 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (2 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

Not enriched in this build.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

9,974

9,974 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.

9,974 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).

5,998 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 9,974 · MeSH hits: 319

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,144

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Karaaslan O4 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Karaman E4 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Li X4 papers · 2026

    Department of Anaesthesiology, West China Second Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Onat E4 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Wilson ML4 papers · 2026

    Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Ateş Ç3 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Doğan A3 papers · 2026

    Department of Haematology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Gjessing HK3 papers · 2026

    Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0379 Oslo, Norway.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Hacıoğlu L3 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 65080 Van, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Joseph KS3 papers · 2026

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

13

interventional trials for this specific condition

13 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 2 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 27 July 2026

13 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 92.8th percentile).

low confidence · 92.8th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

13 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

18 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Where to find support

We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"HELLP syndrome" OR "Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets in pregnancy" OR "Hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelets syndrome" OR "hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelet count syndrome"

Run this search on Europe PMC

MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: HELLP Syndrome

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"HELLP syndrome" OR "Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets in pregnancy" OR "Hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelets syndrome" OR "hemolysis-elevated liver enzymes-low platelet count syndrome"

Interventional trials matched via: both (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 13 interventional · 18 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (9974) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-27T10:28:54.380Z