Onset of hypertension during pregnancy is associated with long-term worse blood pressure control and adverse cardiac remodeling

Up to 20% of women with hypertensive pregnancy disorders might persist with chronic hypertension. This study compared clinical and echocardiographic features between women whose hypertension began as hypertensive pregnancy disorders (PH group) and women whose diagnosis of hypertension did not occur during pregnancy (NPH group). Fifty PH and 100 NPH women were cross–sectionally evaluated by clinical, laboratory, and echocardiography analysis, and the groups were matched by duration of hypertension. PH exhibited lower age (46.6 ± 1.4 vs. 65.3 ± 1.1 years; P < .001), but higher systolic (159.8 ± 3.9 vs. 148.0 ± 2.5 mm Hg; P = .009) and diastolic (97.1 ± 2.4 vs. 80.9 ± 1.3 mm Hg; P < .001) blood pressure than NPH, although used more antihypertensive classes (3.4 ± 0.2 vs. 2.6 ± 0.1; P < .001). Furthermore, PH showed higher left ventricular wall thickness and increased prevalence of concentric hypertrophy than NPH after adjusting for age and blood pressure. In conclusion, this study showed that PH may exhibit worse blood pressure control and adverse left ventricular remodeling compared with NPH.