Hypertension in pregnancy is a risk factor for peripheral arterial disease decades after pregnancy.

ABSTRACT: An ankle-brachial index (ABI) (the ratio of ankle to brachial artery systolic blood pressure) value ?0.9 identifies patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and elevated cardiovascular event risk. This study examined whether women with a history of hypertension in pregnancy are more likely to have an ABI ?0.9 decades after pregnancy.ABI was measured in nulliparous women (n = 144), and women with a history of normotensive (n = 1272) or hypertensive (n = 281) pregnancies who participated in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study [non-Hispanic white (39%) and black (61%) women, 60 (mean) ± 10 (SD) years of age]. Relationships between PAD and pregnancy history were examined by logistic regression. Compared to women with a history of normotensive pregnancy, women with a history of hypertensive pregnancy had greater odds of PAD (1.61 (odds ratio); 1.04-2.49 (95% confidence interval), p = 0.03, adjusted for age, race, height and heart rate). Additional adjustment for ever smoking, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, a family history of hypertension or coronary heart disease, body mass index and education did not attenuate this relationship (1.63; 1.02-2.62, p = 0.04). PAD risk did not differ between women with a history of normotensive pregnancy and nulliparous women (1.06; 0.52-2.14, p = 0.87).Hypertension in pregnancy is an independent risk factor for PAD decades after pregnancy after adjusting for race, age, height, heart rate, ever smoking, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, a family history of hypertension or coronary heart disease, body mass index and education.

SUBMITTER: Weissgerber TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3694211 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature