Key result
Intrauterine severe preeclampsia does not impair offspring myocardial strain but links to higher resting heart rate.
Why the study?
The impact of severe preeclampsia during pregnancy on myocardial function in preterm offspring aged 5 to 8 years was not well characterized.
Does intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia affect myocardial strain in preterm children aged 5 to 8 years?
Cohort (n=46)
No
Does intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia affect myocardial strain in preterm children aged 5 to 8 years?
Absolute Event Rate: -25.74% vs -25.96%
p-value: p=0.766
Intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia does not significantly impact myocardial strain in preterm children at 5-8 years of age, though it is associated with a higher resting heart rate.
Reassures against routine strain screening in exposed children at this age; leaves open whether higher heart rate predicts later cardiovascular outcomes.
Objective: This study aimed to quantitatively assess myocardial strain in preterm children aged 5 to 8 years of pregnancy complicated by severe preeclampsia (PE) by two-dimensional (2D) speckle tracking echocardiography. Method: A cohort study of 23 preterm children delivered by severe PE pregnant women from 2010 to 2012 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University was carried out. 23 preterm children from uneventful pregnancies in the same period served as controls. Myocardial functions including left ventricular longitudinal strain, radial strain, circumferential strain, and right ventricular longitudinal strain were evaluated by conventional Doppler, tissue Doppler imaging, and 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D STE). All examinations were performed by an experienced ultrasonographer using the VIVID E9 (GE Healthcare) machine, according to standard techniques. Results: Children aged 5–8 years delivered from severe PE presented less weight (24.41 vs. 20.89 kg, P < 0.05), shorter height (124.1 vs 115.6 cm, P < 0.05) and faster heart rates (84 vs. 93 bpm, P < 0.05) compared to offspring of normotensive women. There were no significant differences in global left ventricular longitudinal strain, radial strain, circumferential strain, and right ventricular longitudinal strain between the children in the experimental group and the control group (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Exposure to the intrauterine environment of severe PE during the fetal period did not have a significant impact on cardiac structure in premature children at 5–8 years old, but they had a higher resting heart rate which may be associated with cardiovascular disease in the long run.
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Chen et al. (2022) conducted a cohort in Intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia (n=46). Intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia vs. Uneventful pregnancies (normotensive women) was evaluated on Global left ventricular longitudinal strain (%) (p=0.766). Intrauterine exposure to severe preeclampsia did not significantly impair myocardial strain in offspring at 5 to 8 years of age, but was associated with a higher resting heart rate.
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