Early Pregnancy BP Trajectories Linked to New-Onset HTN Years Later

THURSDAY, April 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Early pregnancy blood pressure (BP) trajectories are associated with new-onset hypertension up to 14 years later, according to a study published online April 2 in Hypertension.

James M. Roberts, M.D., from the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study involving 174,774 women without prior hypertension, kidney, liver, or heart disease, or history of preeclampsia. New-onset hypertension was identified from two months through 14 years postdelivery (2009 to 2023). Six BP trajectory (BPT) groups were identified, capturing both BP levels and slopes from 0 to 20 weeks” gestation.

The researchers found that within each hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) group, BPTs were associated with an increasing gradient of hypertension risk after pregnancy. Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension groups had higher adjusted hazard ratios than the no HDP group. Compared with the lowest BPTs of the no HDP group, from the lowest to highest BPT groups, hazard ratios varied from 2.91 to 27.31 for preeclampsia, from 4.20 to 27.81 for gestational hypertension, and from 2.92 to 10.96 for no HDP.

“We think that fine-tuned BPT groups may provide additional information to improve risk prediction later in life as part of current risk assessment tools and the 10-year cardiovascular disease prediction models for individual risk stratification beyond the history of HDP that may be a crude marker of underlying vascular dysfunction that can vary widely among individuals,” the authors write.

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