Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy and Future Maternal Cardiovascular Risk.

Abstract

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) complicate 5% to 10% of pregnancies and are increasing with the rising prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases in younger women.1 Normal pregnancy is marked by an initial drop in mean arterial pressure, with an eventual rise in blood pressure (BP) to prepregnancy levels.2 The development of HDP involves a number of factors that result in volume and hemodynamic alterations that fail to adapt to the changes accompanying pregnancy. There are well established associations between HDP and the development of maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life. Although the associations between preeclampsia and future CVD have long been known, newer evidence suggests that there are also long‐term CVD risks associated with gestational hypertension (GH), although the etiology of GH is thought to be distinct from that of preeclampsia. Whether preeclampsia and GH result as manifestations of already preexisting CVD risk or whether they contribute to the pathogenesis of later CVD development is unclear. A history of HDP has the unique potential to identify women at higher risk of future CVD, for whom targeted risk‐reduction interventions may be particularly helpful. In this review, we discuss the evidence for the long‐ and short‐term risks of maternal CVD associated with HDP, with a focus on preeclampsia and GH. We also outline current recommendations for screening and prevention of CVD in women with a history of HDP and highlight important areas in which additional research is needed.