Risk for Recurrence of Pre-eclampsia in the Subsequent Pregnancy

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is the commonest type of pregnancy induced hypertension and it affects nearly 5% of pregnant women. Besides short term morbidity and mortality that are associated with pregnancy, PE is associated with long term morbidity in women. There is a lack of information on the risk of recurrence of PE in pregnant Asian Indian women.

To determine the rates and risk factors which were associated with recurrence of PE in the subsequent pregnancies of women with PE in index pregnancies.

A retrospective, observational study done at a single tertiary care centre in southern India.

The study included pregnant women with PE, who delivered at the study institute in 2008 and received care for their subsequent pregnancies at the study institute. Hypertension in pregnancy was categorized, based on the criteria of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. Point estimates and the 95% confidence intervals around point estimates of rates of recurrence of PE and associations of potential clinical and laboratory parameters with recurrence were determined by using bivariate analysis, logistic regression models and area under Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves.

The study included 82 pregnant women with PE in their index pregnancies. Twenty two (26.83%, 95% CI: 17.03, 36.62) of these 82 women developed recurrence of PE in their subsequent pregnancies. Recurrence of PE was significantly higher (OR 3.94, 95% CI: 1.05, 14.80, p=0.04) among women who were nulliparous in their index pregnancies. Recurrence of PE was not significantly associated with clinical factors or laboratory parameters in the index pregnancies.

Nearly one in four of pregnant women with PE developed recurrences in their subsequent pregnancies, although a large proportion of pregnant women with PE (63.38% to 82.97%) in their index pregnancies were normotensive in their subsequent pregnancies.