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Review
. 2021 Sep 3:16:e31.
doi: 10.15420/ecr.2021.18. eCollection 2021 Feb.

The Fourth Trimester: Pregnancy as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Disease

Pensée Wu  1 , Ki Park  2 , Martha Gulati  3
Affiliations
Review

The Fourth Trimester: Pregnancy as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Disease

Pensée Wu et al. Eur Cardiol. .

Abstract

Pregnancy identifies women who may be at a greater risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), based on the development of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs), and may identify women who may benefit from atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) risk reduction efforts. APOs are common and although they are separate diagnoses, all these disorders seem to share an underlying pathogenesis. What is not clear is whether the APO itself initiates a pathway that results in CVD or whether the APO uncovers a woman's predisposition to CVD. Regardless, APOs have immediate risks to maternal and foetal health, in addition to longer-term CVD consequences. CVD risk assessment and stratification in women remains complex and, historically, has underestimated risk, especially in young women. Further research is needed into the role of ASCVD risk assessment and the effect of aggressive ASCVD risk modification on CVD outcomes in women with a history of APOs.

Keywords: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; cardiovascular disease; cardiovascular risk; pre-eclampsia; preterm delivery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: PW is funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Transitional Research Fellowship (TRF-2017-10-005). All other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. Impact of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes on the Cardiovascular System
Figure 2:
Figure 2:. Incorporation of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes into the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment of Women
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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