Five major pregnancy complications are strong lifelong risk factors for ischemic heart disease, a new study finds, with the greatest risk coming in the decade after delivery.

Five major pregnancy complications are strong lifelong risk factors for ischemic heart disease, a new study finds, with the greatest risk coming in the decade after delivery. (Andor Bujdoso, Alamy)

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ATLANTA — Five major pregnancy complications are strong lifelong risk factors for ischemic heart disease, a new study finds, with the greatest risk coming in the decade after delivery.

Ischemic heart disease refers to heart problems, including heart attack, caused by narrowed or dysfunctional blood vessels that reduce blood and oxygen flow to the heart.

Gestational diabetes and preeclampsia increased the risk of ischemic heart disease in the study by 54% and 30%, respectively, while other high blood pressure disorders during pregnancy doubled the risk. Delivering a baby early — before 37 weeks — or delivering a baby with a low birth weight were associated with a 72% and 10% increased risk, respectively.

The study, published in Wednesday in the British Medical Journal, followed a cohort of more than 2 million women in Sweden with no history of heart disease who gave birth to single live infants between 1973 and 2015.

Roughly 30% of the women had at least one adverse pregnancy outcome. Those who had multiple adverse outcomes — whether in the same or different pregnancies — showed further increased risk of ischemic heart disease.

"These pregnancy outcomes are early signals for future risk of heart disease and can help identify high-risk women earlier and enable earlier interventions to improve their long-term outcomes and help prevent the development of heart disease in these women," said Dr. Casey Crump, an author of the study and professor of family medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Cardiovascular disease and pregnancy

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States and accounts for 1 in 5 female deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50570264/complications-during-pregnancy-linked-to-a-higher-risk-of-heart-disease-study-finds