Recurrent HTN seen for half of women with HTN in pregnancy

Miriam F. van Oostwaard, M.D., of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 351 women with a hypertensive disorder during an index pregnancy, who delivered between 34 and 37 weeks of gestation. Data were extracted from medical files to assess the recurrence risk of late-preterm hypertensive disease of pregnancy. One hundred eighty-nine of the women had a subsequent pregnancy.

The researchers found that 51 percent of women experienced a recurrence of a hypertensive disorder during a subsequent pregnancy, and delivery before 37 weeks occurred in 9 percent of these women. Significant predictors of recurrence included chronic hypertension and maternal age. Women who experienced a recurrence of their hypertensive disorder during a subsequent pregnancy were almost nine times more likely to develop chronic hypertension (37 versus 6 percent; odds ratio, 8.7).

"Preconception care and counseling is a growing aspect of obstetric care. Couples can make a better informed choice about a subsequent pregnancy and, if needed, monitoring can be intensified in the subsequent pregnancy," the authors write. "Using the results of this study, individual risk counseling can be improved, but more individually tailored prediction models are needed."

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