Cerebrovascular, cardiovascular and renal hypertensive disease after hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Background Strong associations have been established in nationwide registry studies between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and later vascular morbidities and mortality. The aim of this case-control study is to examine the interdependent relationships of different predictive factors for vascular disease and HDP, because they are not clearly elucidated due to lack of detail in registries. Methods and results We assembled three different case groups of women who had cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, or hypertensive kidney disease before the age of 55. The control group consisted of age-matched women who underwent hysterectomy for benign reasons. We assessed the occurrence of HDP in previous pregnancies. The strength of the association with vascular morbidities was tested with multivariable logistic regression in comparison with classic vascular risk factors. In all case groups, previous HDP occurred more frequent than in the control group. In logistic regression analysis, previous HDP were the strongest predictor in the cerebrovascular group (OR 4.2; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6-11.0). In the cardiovascular group and the kidney failure group a similar association was found, however, this was not statistically significant (OR 4.4 (95% CI 0.82-4) and 2.9 (95% CI 0.61-14), respectively). Conclusions Previous hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a strong predictor for later vascular morbidity. This is partially mediated through the presence of classic vascular risk factors, but our data suggest it is also an independent predictor.