The Ongoing Relationship Between Offspring Congenital Heart Disease and Preeclampsia Across Pregnancies

Prior literature has described an association between preeclampsia and offspring congenital heart disease (CHD), while suggesting there may be a stronger relationship in individuals with early preeclampsia.

The authors sought to explore the relationship between offspring CHD and preeclampsia among pregnancies in a population-based study.

Retrospective cohort study all singleton pregnancies delivered in the state of California 2000 to 2012. We included singleton births with gestational ages of 23 to 42 weeks and excluded pregnancies complicated by pre-existing diabetes or identified fetal chromosomal anomalies. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate ORs for associations between offspring CHD and preeclampsia. Further subanalyses examined the relationships in deliveries <34 weeks and >34 weeks to analyze if there was a difference according to timing of preeclampsia development.

Preeclampsia was strongly associated with offspring CHD (aOR: 1.38; 99% CI: 1.29-1.49) in the same pregnancy. Among patients with preeclampsia in the index pregnancy, there was an increased risk of fetal CHD in the subsequent pregnancy (aOR: 1.39; 99% CI: 1.20-1.61). Among patients with offspring CHD in the index pregnancy, there was an increased risk of preeclampsia in the subsequent pregnancy (aOR: 1.39; 99% CI: 1.15-1.68). In all 3 analyses, results remained significant when stratified by <34 weeks and ≥34 weeks.

Our findings suggest a need for further investigation into the etiology of preeclampsia and its relationship to embryologic development of cardiovascular structures.