Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy confer elevated CVD risk for offspring
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Children of mothers who had maternal hypertensive disorders during pregnancy had elevated risk for developing CVD later in life, according to a presentation at ESC Heart & Stroke, a conference of the European Society of Cardiology.
“Our findings indicate that hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are associated with increased risks of stroke and potentially heart disease in offspring up to the age of 41 years. Studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm the results and improve understanding of the possible underlying mechanisms,” Fen Yang, doctoral student at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, said in a press release.
Researchers found that among the 5.8 million children analyzed in the study, 3.76% were born to mothers with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy (HDP), and during the up to 41 years of follow-up, 0.04% of those children were diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, whereas 0.09% had a stroke.
According to the researchers, children who were exposed to HDP had elevated risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke (adjusted HR for ischemic heart disease = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.01-1.63; aHR for stroke = 1.33; 95% CI, 1.24-1.56).
The researchers also found elevated rates of stroke in children exposed to subtypes of maternal HDP: preexisting chronic hypertension (aHR = 1.64; 95% CI, 1.03-2.6), gestational hypertension (aHR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.08-1.77) and preeclampsia (aHR = 1.26; 95% CI, 1.02-1.55).
“The associations between maternal HDP and offspring’s ischemic heart disease and stroke were independent of preterm birth and small for gestational age at birth,” the researchers wrote in an abstract.
The researchers also conducted sibling analyses to account for unmeasured shared risk factors. In those, maternal HDP was linked to stroke (aHR = 1.94; 95% CI, 1.16-3.22) but not with ischemic heart disease (aHR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.47-1.67) in offspring.
“This was one of very few studies in this area and more research is needed. It was an observational study and we cannot make any conclusions about causality,” Yang said in the release. “If our findings are supported by further studies, steps could be taken to prevent cardiovascular disease in offspring exposed to hypertensive pregnancy disorders — for example by focusing on maternal health and screening children for risk factors like high blood pressure early in life.”
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Yang F, et al. Maternal hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and severe cardiovascular diseases in the offspring. Presented at: ESC Heart & Stroke; June 2-4, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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