Women who suffer pre-eclampsia during pregnancy have a higher risk of potentially fatal heart disease decades after their pregnancy, a new study claims.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that women with a history of the condition are more likely to face atherosclerosis – hardening and narrowing of the arteries – years after giving birth.
Pre-eclampsia is a condition in two to seven percent of pregnant women when their white blood cells fail to adapt to the baby and treat it as a foreign body.
Though it is commonly detected 20 weeks into pregnancy, it may never show symptoms and be fatal during childbirth because it increases the mother’s risk of stroke.
The new study shows that the condition could also have serious impacts later in life because atherosclerosis is the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that women with a history of pre-eclampsia are more likely to face atherosclerosis – hardening and narrowing of the arteries – years after giving birth (stock image)
Pre-eclampsia is characterized by high blood pressure and typically shows itself 20 weeks into pregnancy.
It can occur suddenly or develop slowly and poses a concern to the mother and child.
High blood pressure and protein in the urine are the first warning signs of pre-eclampsia, which threatens the life of a baby in the womb when it is rejected by the mother’s immune system.
However sometimes symptoms mock those of normal pregnancy and it is never detected, which could put the mother at serious risk of death during childbirth.
Currently the United States has the highest rate of pregnancy-related complications and death during childbirth of any developed country.
‘We’ve found that pre-eclampsia continues to follow mothers long after the birth of their child,’ Dr Vensa Garovic, who works in the division of Nephrology, and Hypertension explained.
‘The good news is that we can use these findings to apply earlier interventions for risk factors before cardiovascular disease presents.’
Researchers used health records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project to identify 40 postmenopausal women with histories of pre-eclemsia and compared them with 40 women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.
In addition to blood test doctors looked at the thickness of their artery walls.
They found that women who had a history of pre-eclampsia had significantly thicker artery walls than those who did not. The findings were confirmed in a study of 10 different texts.
‘Even without a history of cardiovascular events, women who’ve had pre-eclampsic pregnancies are facing a higher risk of atherosclerosis decades later during their postmenopausal years,’ Dr Garovic said.
‘This makes pre-eclampsia a pregnancy complication that extends well beyond the pregnancy itself.’
The team said that further study is needed on women with a history of the condition that will follow the participants later into life, when further complications may become apparent.
A new study has found that a condition that threatens the lives of some pregnant women and the fetus may continue to put the mother at risk later in life.
Mayo Clinic researchers found that women with a history of pre-eclampsia are more likely to face atherosclerosis – hardening and narrowing of the arteries — decades after their pregnancy. The findings are published in the September issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.