Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: A window to predict future cardiovascular disease

This paper reviews the potential role of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

CVD is one of the most important causes of mortality. Paying attention to the risk factors of CVD is of great importance in reducing mortality, the cost of treatment and care and improving health indicators. Over the recent years, HDP have been considered as a risk factor for developing CVD in later life.

This review study was conducted by searching out PubMed, Scopus, and Springer databases from 2016 to 2019, based on the availability of articles full text. The keywords included “hypertensive disorder of pregnancy AND cardiovascular disease AND risk AND screening”. At first, 223 articles were found that according to the title and with the elimination of repetitive and non-English language studies, the number of articles was reduced to 17, and 10 papers were reviewed.

Within the recent years, the incidence of CVD in women with a history of HDP has been considered. The main discussion in numerous studies has been focused on whether the presence of risk factors for CVD before pregnancy leads to HDP and then occurrence of hypertension in later years, or HDP is the risk factor for the onset of CVD in the future.

Pregnancy is considered as a stress test that unveiling CVD, therefore, it is important that the history of HDP to be considered in the list of risk factors for CVD in postpartum years. Annual blood pressure and renal function monitoring, lifestyle modification and paying attention to the CVD risk factors in this group of women is recommended.