In a preeclamptic patient, transient increases in carotid IMT and stiffness alongside reduced baroreflex sensitivity during pregnancy suggest a mechanism for impaired blood pressure control.
May underlie impaired BP control in preeclampsia; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation.
Baroreflex sensitivity, distensibility coefficient, and intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery were determined in a preeclamptic patient during 1st and 3rd trimesters as well as after childbirth. From the beginning of her pregnancy, baroreflex sensitivity and distensibility coefficient of the carotid artery exhibited a parallel decline, whereas the IMT increased as compared with normotensive pregnancies. The values of all parameters examined returned to their initial levels after 14 weeks of delivery. These results suggest that augmented IMT and carotid stiffness coupled to baroreceptor dysfunction may have contributed to the perturbation of blood pressure control in our preeclamptic patient.
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Rigó et al. (2005) studied this question.
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