Hypertension in Pregnancy and Later Cardiovascular Risk. Common Antecedents?
Pål R. Romundstad PhD*, Elisabeth B. Magnussen MD, George Davey Smith MD, DSc, and Lars J. Vatten MD, PhD
Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension areassociated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease laterin life. In this trial, which is published in Circulation journal, the authors have assessed whether the effect can be attributedto factors that operate in pregnancy or to prepregnancy riskfactors that are shared by both disorders.
This was a longitudinaldata from 2 consecutive waves of a Norwegian population-basedstudy (the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study [HUNT]) were combinedwith data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Among 24865 women who had participated in both HUNT 1 and 2, the authors identified3225 women with a singleton birth between the 2 studies whohad standardized measurements of blood pressure, serum lipids,and body mass index. The crude results showed that women whoexperienced preeclampsia or gestational hypertension in pregnancyhad substantially higher levels of body mass index and systolicand diastolic blood pressures and unfavorable lipids comparedwith other women. However, after adjustment for prepregnancymeasurements, the difference in body mass index was attenuatedby >65%, and the difference in blood pressure was attenuatedby 
50%. In relation to high-density lipoprotein cholesteroland triglycerides, differences between the groups were attenuatedby 40% and 72%, respectively.
50%. In relation to high-density lipoprotein cholesteroland triglycerides, differences between the groups were attenuatedby 40% and 72%, respectively.The authors concluded that these resultssuggest that the positive association of preeclampsia and gestationalhypertension with postpregnancy cardiovascular risk factorsmay be due largely to shared prepregnancy risk factors ratherthan reflecting a direct influence of the hypertensive disorderin pregnancy.
REFERENCE:
Pål R. Romundstad PhD*, Elisabeth B. Magnussen MD, George Davey Smith MD, DSc, and Lars J. Vatten MD, PhD. Hypertension in Pregnancy and Later Cardiovascular Risk. Common Antecedents? Circulation. 2010;122:579-584
