AMI, Stroke Risk Elevated for Women With Preeclampsia Within 20 Years

FRIDAY, Feb. 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Women with a history of preeclampsia have a significantly increased risk for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and ischemic stroke within and after 10 years of delivery, according to a study published online Jan. 26 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Sara Hallum, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a register-based study including 1,157,666 women with more than one pregnancy between 1978 and 2017. The cumulative incidences and hazard ratios for AMI and ischemic stroke were estimated.

The researchers found that up to 2 and 1.2 percent of women with preeclampsia in their first pregnancy and preeclampsia-free women, respectively, had an AMI or stroke within two decades of delivery; the differences in cumulative incidence were seen up to seven years after delivery. Women with preeclampsia had significantly elevated rates of AMI and stroke 10 years after delivery compared with women without preeclampsia (hazard ratios, 4.16 and 2.59); more than 20 years later, rates remained doubled. For women aged 30 to 39 years, those with preeclampsia had higher rates of AMI and stroke compared with those without preeclampsia (hazard ratios, 4.88 and 2.56, respectively).

“Our findings suggest that a history of preeclampsia should focus attention on a group of women at potentially high risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease], with the aim of improving risk assessment and disease prevention in this vulnerable group,” the authors write.