Individual artery wall layer dimensions indicate increased cardiovascular risk in previous severe preeclampsia -an investigation using non-invasive high-frequency ultrasound

Preeclampsia (PE) is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease later in life. Studies using gold standard of non-invasive estimation of atherosclerosis, the common carotid artery intima-media-thickness (CCA-IMT), have not indicated increased atherosclerosis in women with previous PE. That reason may be that with increasing age and degree of atherosclerosis the intima increases, while the media decreases.

To assess whether the individual thickness of the CCA intima and media layers and calculation of intima/media (I/M) ratio indicate an increased cardiovascular risk in women with previous severe PE.

Arterial intima- and media tthicknesses were obtained by non-invasive high-frequency ultrasound (22MHz) in 42 women with previous severe PE and 44 women with previous normal pregnancies.

Women with previous severe PE had a thicker mean CCA intima and a higher I/M ratio, compared to women with previous normal pregnancies (both p<0.0001). In ROC curve analysis, intima thickness and I/M ratio discriminated strongly with regard to previous severe PE.

The method using individual estimation of the CCA intima and media layers and calculating the I/M ratio, clearly showed an increased degree of atherosclerosis in women with previous severe PE. This method might become a clinically useful tool to stratify cardiovascular risk, enabling early intervention and hopefully reduce their long-term cardiovascular risk.