Page 197 - Pro-active Management of Women’s Health after Cardiometabolic Complicated Pregnancies

SUMMARY
Women with a history of cardiometabolic complicated pregnancy are at increased risk for future disease. The metabolic syndrome may represent a pathophysiological link between a complicated pregnancy and future cardiometabolic risk. However, since studies focus on women after their pregnancy, it remains unclear whether pregnancy complications themselves (irreversibly) affects cardiometabolic health. The answer to this question does not alter the fact that a complicated pregnancy uniquely identifies these women at a young age as high risk for future disease. This represents a unique possibility for primary lifestyle intervention. However, although it is difficult to reach and motivate the eligible people to change their lifestyle, the experience of having had a complicated pregnancy might open up a window of opportunity to guide these women to a healthier future.
The introduction and outline of this thesis are presented in part 1. The general aim of this thesis is to develop and evaluate a postpartum program appraising cardiovascular health and offering lifestyle intervention after complicated pregnancy to reduce future cardiometabolic risks.
Lot of research is being performed on cardiovascular health after preeclampsia. Part 2 describes our findings that contribute to the appraisal of cardiovascular health after complicated pregnancy. In chapter 2.1 a historical prospective cohort is used to test how time to resolution correlate with the levels of blood pressure and proteinuria during preeclampsia and the prolongation of pregnancy after the development of preeclampsia. We showed that maximal blood pressure and prolongation of pregnancy were significantly correlated with time of postpartum recovery of hypertension. Every day that preeclampsia was prolonged added 4% more time to recovery of hypertension. This suggests that
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