Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease during the first year of life, a recent study has found.

A new study published in the journal Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology shows that common conditions that cause dangerous high blood pressure during pregnancy, excluding gestational diabetes, double women’s risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. It became clear that it would be.

These conditions include chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia without severe features, preeclampsia with severe features, multiple preeclampsia, and eclampsia.

“Although maternal and postpartum mortality rates in the United States are high and rising compared to other high-income countries, more than half of cardiovascular disease-related deaths are preventable. This study shows that each hypertensive disease is “We provide new information about how these complications are associated with cardiovascular disease,” so healthcare providers should more closely monitor patients with such complications to maintain postpartum health. “We can develop strategies to help,” lead author Rachel Lee of Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine said in a news release.

For the study, researchers examined a national readmission database to estimate pregnancy-related mortality rates for women ages 15 to 54 from 2010 to 2018.

Researchers identified hypertensive disorders in 11% of cases out of more than 33 million delivery admissions. The researchers noted that the number increased over time.

“In 2010, 9.4 percent of patients in the study had gestational hypertension. By 2018, that number had increased by more than half to 14.4 percent,” the news release states. Masu.

“As this country becomes better at predicting, diagnosing and treating pre-eclampsia, the risk of death for individual patients with the disease is decreasing,” said Kande Ananth, senior author of the study. said.

But the rapid increase in the number of patients developing chronic hypertension has more than compensated for the improved ability to treat it, Ananth said.

“Chronic hypertension cases are rapidly increasing among people of childbearing age, but optimal treatment strategies remain uncertain. We are treating more pregnant people with mild hypertension with antihypertensive drugs. “However, many questions remain about the correct definition of hypertension in pregnancy compared to people of childbearing age. People who are not pregnant,” Ananth said.

Pregnant women with hypertension, especially those with a history of high blood pressure, should take special care because the symptoms of heart disease can resemble typical signs of pregnancy.

Delayed diagnosis can increase the incidence of avoidable complications such as stroke. Therefore, the researchers explained that timely diagnosis and effective treatment of hypertensive disorders, especially preeclampsia/eclampsia, is important.