scholarly journals Hypertension in Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Blood Pressure Goals, and Pharmacotherapy: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Hypertension ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna D. Garovic ◽  
Ralf Dechend ◽  
Thomas Easterling ◽  
S. Ananth Karumanchi ◽  
Suzanne McMurtry Baird ◽  
...  

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) remain one of the major causes of pregnancy-related maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Affected women are also at increased risk for cardiovascular disease later in life, independently of traditional cardiovascular disease risks. Despite the immediate and long-term cardiovascular disease risks, recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of HDP in the United States have changed little, if at all, over past decades, unlike hypertension guidelines for the general population. The reasons for this approach include the question of benefit from normalization of blood pressure treatment for pregnant women, coupled with theoretical concerns for fetal well-being from a reduction in utero-placental perfusion and in utero exposure to antihypertensive medication. This report is based on a review of current literature and includes normal physiological changes in pregnancy that may affect clinical presentation of HDP; HDP epidemiology and the immediate and long-term sequelae of HDP; the pathophysiology of preeclampsia, an HDP commonly associated with proteinuria and increasingly recognized as a heterogeneous disease with different clinical phenotypes and likely distinct pathological mechanisms; a critical overview of current national and international HDP guidelines; emerging evidence that reducing blood pressure treatment goals in pregnancy may reduce maternal severe hypertension without increasing the risk of pregnancy loss, high-level neonatal care, or overall maternal complications; and the increasingly recognized morbidity associated with postpartum hypertension/preeclampsia. Finally, we discuss the future of research in the field and the pressing need to study socioeconomic and biological factors that may contribute to racial and ethnic maternal health care disparities.

Author(s):  
Michelle C. Odden ◽  
Sei J. Lee ◽  
Michael A. Steinman ◽  
Anna D. Rubinsky ◽  
Laura Graham ◽  
...  

Hypertension ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E Ernst ◽  
Enayet K Chowdhury ◽  
Lawrie Beilin ◽  
Karen L Margolis ◽  
Mark R Nelson ◽  
...  

Greater blood pressure variability (BPV) in midlife increases risk of future cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, but the impact of BPV in adults who have reached older ages while remaining free of CVD is unknown. We examined risk of overall incident CVD, ischemic stroke subgroup, and all-cause mortality associated with long-term, visit-to-visit BPV in participants of the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly study, a randomized primary prevention trial of daily low-dose aspirin in community-dwelling adults in Australia and the United States (US) aged 70 and older (65 if US minority) without evidence of CVD. The mean of three blood pressures (BP) using an automated cuff was recorded at baseline and annually. CVD was a prespecified composite secondary endpoint of ASPREE, and included fatal coronary heart disease, nonfatal MI, fatal or nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. All CVD events were adjudicated as part of the main trial. This analysis included participants who survived without CVD to the second annual visit and had BP recorded at baseline, years 1 and 2 (n=16,482). BPV was defined as within-individual standard deviation of mean systolic BP across these visits. Cox proportional hazards regression adjusting for confounders was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) according to tertile of estimated BPV, with year 2 as time zero to minimize immortal time bias. Our results (Table) show that higher visit-to-visit BPV in older adults without previous CVD is associated with increased risk of future CVD events, ischemic stroke, and all-cause mortality, suggesting that BPV in older ages should be considered a potential therapeutic target for CVD risk-lowering.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Nayor ◽  
Meredith S. Duncan ◽  
Solomon K. Musani ◽  
Vanessa Xanthakis ◽  
Michael P. LaValley ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kavitha Vellanki ◽  
Susan Hou

Hypertensive disorders are the second leading cause of maternal mortality in the United States. Hypertension in pregnancy is defined as blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg systolic or greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg diastolic, measured on at least two separate occasions. Preeclampsia, as per the new guidelines, is characterized by the new onset of hypertension and either proteinuria or other end-organ dysfunction, more often after 20 weeks of gestation in a previously normotensive pregnant woman. New-onset proteinuria is not required for diagnosis of preeclampsia if there is evidence of other end-organ damage—a change from previous classifications. Although no screening test has yet proven accurate enough to predict preeclampsia, the use of a combination of the serologic factors seems promising. There are few data to support any specific blood pressure target in pregnancy. Although there is a general consensus on treating severe hypertension in pregnancy, there is a difference of opinion on treating mild to moderate hypertension in pregnancy. Avoiding uteroplacental ischemia and minimizing fetal exposure to adverse effects of medications are as important as avoiding maternal complications from high blood pressure during pregnancy. This review contains 2 figures, 4 tables, and 73 references.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilay S Shah ◽  
Hongyan Ning ◽  
Amanda Perak ◽  
Norrina B Allen ◽  
John T Wilkins ◽  
...  

Introduction: Premature fatal cardiovascular disease rates have plateaued in the US. Identifying population distributions of short- and long-term predicted risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) can inform interventions and policy to improve cardiovascular health over the life course. Methods: Among nonpregnant participants age 30-59 years without prevalent CVD from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2015-18, continuous 10 year (10Y) and 30 year (30Y) predicted ASCVD risk were assigned using the Pooled Cohort Equations and a 30-year competing risk model, respectively. Intermediate/high 10Y risk was defined as ≥7.5%, and high 30Y risk was chosen a priori as ≥20%, based on 2019 guideline levels for risk stratification. Participants were combined into low 10Y/low 30Y, low 10Y/high 30Y, and intermediate/high 10Y categories. We calculated and compared risk distributions overall and across race-sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and education using chi-square tests. Results: In 1495 NHANES participants age 30-59 years (representing 53,022,413 Americans), median 10Y risk was 2.3% and 30Y risk was 15.5%. Approximately 12% of individuals were already estimated to have intermediate/high 10Y risk. Of those at low 10Y risk, 30% had high 30Y predicted risk. Distributions differed significantly by sex, race, age, BMI, and education (P<0.01, Figure ). Black males more frequently had high 10Y risk compared with other race-sex groups. Older individuals, those with BMI ≥30 kg/m 2 , and with ≤high school education had a higher frequency of low 10Y/high 30Y risk. Conclusions: More than one-third of middle-aged U.S. adults have elevated short- or long-term predicted risk for ASCVD. While the majority of middle-aged US adults are at low 10Y risk, a large proportion among this subgroup are at high 30Y ASCVD risk, indicating a substantial need for enhanced clinical and population level prevention earlier in the life course.


2017 ◽  
Vol 167 (4) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Gulistan Bahat ◽  
Birkan Ilhan ◽  
Asli Tufan ◽  
Mehmet Akif Karan

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