The Impact of Preeclampsia on Women’s Health: Cardiovascular Long-term Implications

Importance Women with a history of preeclampsia have a 2- to 5-fold increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, which represent almost half of mortality in the female population worldwide. Objective To summarize the current evidence concerning women's future cardiovascular risk after pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia. Evidence Acquisition A PubMed and Web of Science search was conducted in English, supplemented by hand searching for additional references. Retrieved articles were reviewed, synthesized, and summarized. Relevant studies on cardiovascular risk after preeclampsia were included. Results Evidence suggests that the cardiovascular implications of preeclampsia do not cease with delivery, with a significant proportion of women demonstrating persistent asymptomatic myocardial impairment, aortic stiffening, and microcirculatory dysfunction. More severe and early-onset preeclampsia, as well as preeclampsia with concurrent neonatal morbidity, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Conclusions and Relevance As former preeclamptics have been shown to be at increased cardiovascular risk, this identifies a subgroup of women who may benefit from early preventive measures. Target Audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians. Learning Objectives After completing this educational activity, the obstetrician/gynecologist should be better able to define what is meant by “cardiovascular long-term implications of preeclampsia”; identify women at higher risk of future cardiovascular disease; and evaluate intervention strategies proposed to manage this subgroup of the female population.