Diverse cardiovascular risk of recurrent spontaneous abortion: A prospective cohort study using UK Biobank

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that history of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) can increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. However, previous studies mainly focused on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), such as coronary artery disease or stroke, hence the effect of RSA on non-atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (non-ASCVD) remains unknown. In the current study, we examined if women with a history of RSA have an increased risk for long-term cardiovascular outcomes including both ASCVD and non-ASCVD. The UK Biobank is a prospective cohort study that recruited participants 40 to 69 years old with ongoing follow-up. Among women enrolled in UK Biobank, those with at least one pregnancy history and without pre-existing cardiovascular disease were included. The new occurrence of ASCVD and non-ASCVD after enrollment were compared between the women with RSA history and without RSA history. To evaluate the incidence of cardiovascular outcomes, a Cox proportional hazard model was used with adjustment for covariates including age, race, BMI, nulliparity, use of hormones, smoking, early menopause, hysterectomy, prevalent diseases, and medication by Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. In the presence of a history of RSA, the risk of new occurrence of overall cardiovascular disease, was higher (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 1.24 (95% CI 1.15-1.35), Figure 1). Specifically, the incidence of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, heart failure, mitral regurgitation, atrial fibrillation/flutter were all increased in cases with a history of RSA (Figure 2). The women with history of RSA had an increased long-term risk of not only ASCVD, but also non-ASCVD.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT)