Maintaining good cardiovascular health during the first trimester of pregnancy may offset the genetic risk of developing preeclampsia and/or gestational hypertension, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2024 . Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (such as gestational hypertension and preeclampsia) are a leading cause of death in both expectant mothers and newborns. A validated risk model called a polygenic risk score can be used to predict an individual's chance of developing these conditions based on their genetic profile.
However, it is unknown how much cardiovascular health status in early pregnancy, as measured by the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) scoring, affects this risk. "We were looking to see if there was an association between cardiovascular health during early pregnancy and risk of developing a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy such as preeclampsia or gestational hypertension, even across genetic risk groups for these diseases," said study co-author Vineetha Mathew, a fourth year M.D.
-candidate at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. "Our results found that across all genetic risk groups, better first trimester cardiovascular health may partially mitigate the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and the risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy." The study investigated whether cardiovascular health in the first trimester of pregnancy can offset.