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Trial Lecture – time and place
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Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Shaun Brennecke, University of Melbourne, Australia
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Helga Midtbø, University of Bergen, Norway
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Kristina Haugaa, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Emeritus Karin Cecilie Lødrup Carlsen, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Anne Cathrine Staff, University of Oslo
Summary
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are associated with adverse cardiovascular changes and increased risk of future maternal cardiovascular disease. Pregnancy may be considered a cardiovascular stress test, as it puts extra strain on the heart and blood vessels. A cardiovascular follow-up is therefore recommended after such hypertensive pregnancy complications. However, optimal screening strategies for personalized cardiovascular disease risk evaluation and prevention remain unclear.
This thesis aimed to explore both pregnancy-specific and sex-independent cardiovascular risk factors and their associations with a broad range of clinical, biochemical and imaging cardiovascular biomarkers. To this end, 319 women from the clinical Health after Pregnancy Complications (HAPPY) study were examined 1-3 years after a normotensive or a hypertensive pregnancy.
We found that women with a recent history of a hypertensive pregnancy disorder had more unfavorable cardiometabolic profiles than women with prior normotensive pregnancy. Our findings support previous reports of adverse cardiovascular risk profiles after such hypertensive pregnancy complications, also after adjustment for other known sex-independent risk factors. This thesis supports the need for intensified and personalized cardiovascular follow-up already from the first years after hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Cardiovascular follow-up should include assessments of classical, modifiable risk factors (e.g., hypertension, overweight, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia) to enable early personalized prevention of cardiovascular disease in women.
Additional information
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