Preeclamptic Women Are at Significantly Higher Risk of Future Cardiovascular Outcomes Over a 15-Year Period.

Background: Preeclampsia (PE) may lead to maternal and infant mortality and severe medical complications. Understanding future short- and long-term cardiovascular (CV) outcomes of PE is important to women's health. Materials and Methods: A retrospective matched case-control study assessed the risks of CV outcomes over a 15-year period (1999-2013) in pregnant case women, with gravidity and parity of one, diagnosed with PE, compared to pregnant primiparous control women who were not diagnosed with PE. The New Jersey Electronic Birth Certificate (EBC) database and the Myocardial Infarction Data Acquisition System (MIDAS), a database of all hospital admissions in New Jersey with longitudinal follow-up, were used to conduct the analysis. Participants were 18 years and older with demographics consistent with New Jersey, a state with a range of racial and ethnic diversity. Main outcome measures postpregnancy and over this 15-year period were myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, CV death, and all-cause death. Results: Women with PE (N = 6,360) were more likely to suffer MI, stroke, CV death, and all-cause death than controls (N = 325,347). After matching cases to controls for demographics and comorbidities, hazard ratios of PE cases for the outcomes of MI (p adjusted for comorbidities and demographics = 0.0196), CV death (adjusted p = 0.007), and all-cause death (adjusted p = 0.0026) were significantly higher than 1 compared to matched controls. Women with PE had 3.94 (95% CI: 1.25-12.4) times higher hazard for MI, 4.66 (95% CI: 1.52-14.26) times higher hazard of CV death, and 2.32 (95% CI: 1.34-4.02) times higher hazard for all-cause death than matched controls. Conclusions: This 15-year study indicates that women who have PE with their first pregnancy have a significantly higher risk of adverse CV outcomes compared to controls and suggest a heightened and continued CV monitoring after birth for this population of women.