Heart risk from pregnancy hypertension

Women diagnosed as hypertensive during pregnancy face a significantly increased risk of going on to develop cardiovascular disease, a conference has heard.

A team led by Dr Clare Oliver-Williams of the University of Cambridge, UK, looked at information on nearly 6.5 million women who were pregnant in 1997 and followed until 2015.

They found that the risk of going on to develop a serious heart and circulatory condition was 45% increased if a woman had hypertension during pregnancy, and nearly 70% for women who had pre-eclampsia, versus those who had normal blood pressure during pregnancy.

Details were presented yesterday (4 June) at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester, UK.

Dr Oliver-Williams said: “The women we studied had all recently had babies so they were younger than the average person who has a heart attack or stroke. So, although the number of cases of serious events like heart attack and stroke isn’t huge, there is an important increase.

“A pregnant woman can be busy worrying about lots of things – her due date, her work and maybe her other children, so it can be easy to put themselves last. But it’s important that all expectant mums to keep a close eye on their own heart and circulatory health, and it’s equally important that doctors recognise the symptoms of heart and circulatory diseases in women who have had complications during their pregnancies.”

The work was funded by the British Heart Foundation. Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director of the charity, commented: “Developing high blood pressure when you’re pregnant could be an early warning of an underlying problem that might lead to other heart and circulatory diseases at a later date.

“Much more research is needed so that we can understand the condition better and improve the lives of those living with heart and circulatory diseases, pregnant or not.”

Oliver-Williams, C. et al. Association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and later risk of cardiovascular outcomes. Presented on 4 June 2019 at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester, UK.

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