London: Amid growing tensions related to coronavirus, researchers have warned that pregnant women who have hypertension are at high risk for grave health conditions.
It is being said that women who suffer with high blood pressure during the course of their pregnancy will more likely experience cardiac diseases including heart failures later in life.
A study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, proved that women in their first pregnancy, given that they develop high blood pressure in that duration, are at an alarming 45 per cent higher risk of suffering from heart diseases.
A senior author from the University of Cambridge in UK, Dr. Clare Oliver-Williams said, “When we looked at all the available research, the answer was clear: women who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy are more likely to develop several different kinds of cardiovascular disease.”
The study further said that around one to six percent of the total number of pregnancies in Western countries like the US and UK suffer illnesses due to hypertension. This is generally resolved with the condition turning normal after their give birth.
This duration or condition is called as gestational hypertension or pregnancy-induced hypertension which affects women only during their pregnancy, and more commonly, the first one.
Gestational hypertension is different from pre-eclampsia in a way as trace amounts of protein aren’t found in the urine samples of these women which are often seen in the latter condition.
Clinicians increasingly recognise that women who have had gestational hypertension are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in later life.
However, mixed results have been recorded after studies of various types of cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and heart failure were carried out.
To explore the possibilities and derive at results pertaining to their linking, a team of international researchers conducted a systematicreview and meta-analysis of 21 studies involving a total of 3.6 million women, 128,000 of who previously had gestational hypertension.
The researchers found that women who experienced high blood pressure during their first pregnancy were at 46 per cent higher risk of coronary heart disease compared to women who did not have high blood pressure in pregnancy.
Women who had one or more pregnancies sufferingfrom high blood pressure were at 81 per cent higher risk of cardiovascular disease, 83 per cent higher risk of coronary heart disease and 77 per cent higher risk of heart failure.
This study brings light to the already present and exceedingly growing proof of the connection between pregnancy and it’s related risks of cardiovascular diseases.
Recurrent miscarriages, preterm birth, foetal growth restriction and pre-eclampsia have all previously been linked with a greater risk of heart disease.
However, it has still not been proved as to why gestational hypertension has chances to lead to heart conditions in the later part of the woman’s life.
The possibilities that the study researchers suggested point at damages and changes caused by hypertension during pregnancy. They say that these damages may impart it’s role in the cardiovascular diseases.
