Offspring of mothers with preeclampsia have elevated risk for stroke, heart disease
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In a Scandinavian cohort, offspring born to mothers with preeclampsia had elevated risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.
The association was mostly independent of preterm or small for gestational age birth, according to the researchers.
The researchers analyzed 8,475,819 singleton births (51.3% boys) from Denmark (1973-2016), Finland (1987-2014) and Sweden (1973-2014).
Among the offspring, 2.2% were exposed to maternal preeclampsia. During a median 19.3 years of follow-up, 0.1% of offspring were diagnosed with ischemic heart disease and 0.1% were diagnosed with stroke.
Compared with those not exposed to maternal preeclampsia, offspring of mothers with preeclampsia had elevated risk for ischemic heart disease (adjusted HR = 1.33; 95% CI, 1.12-1.58) and stroke (aHR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.17-1.52), Fen Yang, MD, MSc, from the department of global public health at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues wrote.
There were no significant interactions between preeclampsia and preterm or small for gestational age birth on risk for ischemic heart disease or stroke, according to the researchers, who wrote that preeclampsia remained associated with offspring risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke in individuals without preterm or small for gestational age birth.
Offspring of mothers with severe preeclampsia were more likely to develop stroke compared with offspring of mothers with mild or moderate preeclampsia (aHR for severe = 1.81; 95% CI, 1.41-2.32; aHR for mild/moderate = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05-1.42), Yang and colleagues wrote.
Similarly, they wrote, stroke risk was more pronounced in offspring of mothers with early-onset preeclampsia vs. late-onset (aHR for early onset = 2.55; 95% CI, 1.97-3.28; aHR for late onset = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.01-1.39) and in those with small for gestational age birth (aHR = 1.84; 95% CI, 1.44-2.34) vs. those without (aHR = 1.25; 95% CI, 1.07-1.48).
“If these findings are confirmed by future studies, screening for risk factors among offspring born to individuals with preeclampsia and primary preventive measures may be implemented early in life to reduce the burden of CVDs,” Yang and colleagues wrote.
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