Thicknesses of individual layers of artery wall indicate increased cardiovascular risk in severe pre-eclampsia

To assess whether thicknesses of the intima and media in the common carotid artery (CCA) and the intima/media ratio (I/M) indicate an increased cardiovascular risk in non-pregnant women with a history of previous severe pre-eclampsia.

Thicknesses of the CCA intima and media layers were measured using non-invasive high-frequency (22 MHz) ultrasound in 42 women with a history of severe pre-eclampsia and 44 women with previous normal pregnancy.

Women with a history of severe pre-eclampsia had a thicker CCA intima and a higher I/M than had women with previous normal pregnancy, also after adjustment for mean arterial pressure, body mass index and CCA intima-media thickness (IMT) (all P < 0.0001). CCA-IMT did not differ significantly between groups. In receiver-operating characteristics curve analysis, intima thickness and I/M clearly discriminated between women with and those without previous pre-eclampsia (area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (AUC), 0.98 and 0.93), whereas CCA-IMT did not (AUC, 0.52).

CCA individual intima and media thicknesses as well as I/M, but not CCA-IMT, reflect the known increased long-term cardiovascular risk of pre-eclampsia. Estimation of individual CCA layers using high-frequency ultrasound appears preferable to measuring CCA-IMT for investigating arterial effects and the increased cardiovascular risk in women with a history of severe pre-eclampsia.