Background:
Hypertensive diseases in pregnancy have been associated with cardiovascular diseases later in life. However, less is known about the relationship between hypertensive diseases in pregnancy and hemodynamic stress later in life. We evaluated the relationship between hypertensive diseases in pregnancy and plasma levels of biomarkers of hemodynamic stress later in life in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study.
Methods and Results:
We investigated 1605 women from the GENOA study (mean age 61±10 years, 57.1% African American).Women were classified as self-reported as nulliparous women (n=140), a history of normotensive pregnancies (n=1,195), a history of a hypertensive pregnancy (n= 229), or a history of preeclampsia (n= 41). We compared adjusted associations among this groups with 4 biomarkers of hemodynamic stress using generalized estimating equations to account for familial clustering. After adjusting for age, race, level of education, smoking history, hypertension, body mass index (BMI), history of coronary artery disease, and diabetes, women with a history of preeclampsia had higher levels of C-terminal proendothelin (CT-proET) compared to women with a history of normotensive pregnancies (Table, p=0.01). There were no significant differences in the levels of midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), and C-Terminal proarginine vasopressin (CT-proAVP) in this groups.
Conclusions:
Elevated levels of CT-proET (a precursor to the potent vasoconstrictor Endothelin 1) demonstrates a strong relationship among those with a history of preeclampsia. Future studies are warranted to further explore the relationship between CT-proET in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia as well as subsequent changes in cardiovascular structure and function associated with a history of preeclampsia later in life.