Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication that occurs when a woman who previously had normal blood pressure suddenly develops high blood pressure and protein in the urine or other problems after 20 weeks’ gestation. If left untreated, it can lead to serious complications for both mother and child.
Women with pre-eclampsia during pregnancy are at least three times more likely to have strokes later in life than those without a history of the condition, according to scientists at the Utah University of Health in the United States. For this reason, the researchers recommend that women who have had this complication be followed up in later years and not just during pregnancy.
A serious pregnancy complication to watch out for
“Our study strongly suggests that for women with a history of pre-eclampsia, clinicians should consider aggressive treatment of midlife vascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol and glucose levels.”
These are the words of Dr. Adam de Havenon, lead author and assistant professor of neurology at the University of Utah, about possible measures to prevent a stroke, commonly known as a stroke or stroke.
He adds that previous research had already discovered a relationship between this pregnancy complication and stroke, but the women were not followed until middle age and the development of risk factors, such as hypertension, cholesterol, was not observed. , blood glucose or smoking.
In their research, published in the journal ‘JAMA Network Open’, they analyzed data from 1,435 women who had given birth and were participating in the Framingham Heart Study, an epidemiological study that followed a group of individuals from 1948 to 2016 to determine the natural history of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke.
None of the women had suffered a stroke before enrolling in the Framingham study and 169 of them had had pre-eclampsia. In addition, during this 32-year follow-up, 231 women suffered a stroke.
Dr. Lauren Theilen, MSCI, lead author of the study and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Utah Health, notes that pre-eclampsia can cause more long-term damage than previously thought , making women more susceptible to suffering a stroke as you age:
“We used to think it just happened while you were pregnant and then it would heal. But pre-eclampsia can cause lasting damage to your blood vessels.”
For this reason, the doctor studies possible mechanisms that could help explain how and why this pregnancy complication, along with other vascular risk factors, increases the risk of stroke among women.
Vía | University of Utah Health
Photos | iStock
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