Ophthalmic artery Doppler in women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: relationship to blood pressure control and renal dysfunction at 6–9 weeks postnatally

Objectives To examine the postnatal course of ophthalmic artery (OA) Doppler in women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and to evaluate the correlation between OA Doppler parameters and poor postnatal blood pressure control and renal dysfunction at 2–3 weeks and 6–9 weeks postnatally. Methods This was a prospective cohort study of women with a singleton pregnancy and HDP seen at a tertiary pregnancy hypertension clinic between 2019 and 2021. Three visits were included: Visit 1, the last visit to the antenatal hypertension clinic within 2 weeks prior to delivery; Visit 2, at 2–3 weeks postnatally; and Visit 3, at 6–9 weeks postnatally. At each visit, maternal demographic characteristics, medical history, blood pressure and OA Doppler were obtained. In addition, fetal growth and fetal Dopplers were examined antenatally and, at 6–9 weeks postnatally, estimated glomerular filtration rate and proteinuria were quantified. Study participants were divided into four hypertension groups, according to longitudinal changes in blood pressure at the three visits. For the postnatal visits, hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 90 mmHg in the absence of antihypertensive medication, and SBP ≥ 130 mmHg and/or DBP ≥ 80 mmHg whilst taking antihypertensives. Group 1 was hypertensive at all three visits; Group 2 was hypertensive at Visits 1 and 2 but normotensive at Visit 3; Group 3 was hypertensive at Visits 1 and 3 but normotensive at Visit 2; and Group 4 was hypertensive at Visit 1 but normotensive at Visits 2 and 3. The longitudinal changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), peak systolic velocity (PSV) 1, PSV2 and the ratio of PSV2/PSV1 over the three timepoints were examined by a repeated‐measures, multilevel, linear mixed‐effects analysis, controlling for maternal age, weight at presentation and use of antihypertensive medication. In addition, we examined the longitudinal change in OA Doppler parameters in women with different degrees of postnatal blood pressure control and in those with and those without renal dysfunction at 6–9 weeks postnatally. Results A total of 108 women were recruited to the study, of whom 86 had new‐onset hypertension and 22 had chronic hypertension. When controlling for maternal age, weight at presentation and use of antihypertensive medication, a significant decline in log 10 MAP ( P < 0.001), log 10 PSV1 ( P < 0.001) and log 10 PSV2 ( P = 0.01) was seen between Visits 1 and 3. Log 10 PSVR did not change with time. When assessing OA Doppler against hypertension group, log 10 PSV1 and log 10 PSV2 did not differ between the hypertension groups, whilst Group 4 had a lower log 10 PSVR compared with Group 1 ( P < 0.01), Group 2 ( P = 0.03) and Group 3 ( P < 0.01). At 6–9 weeks postnatally, log 10 PSVR was lower in those without compared to those with renal dysfunction (−0.021, P = 0.01), whilst log 10 MAP, log 10 PSV1 and log 10 PSV2 values did not differ. Log 10 PSVR did not change with time and remained at −0.12 (95% CI, −0.13 to −0.11) across the three visits. Conclusions In women with HDP, the OA‐PSVR was significantly higher in those with labile or persistently raised blood pressure postnatally compared to women whose blood pressure normalized. Similarly, the OA‐PSVR at 6–9 weeks postnatally was significantly higher in women with renal dysfunction vs those without dysfunction.