Pre-eclampsia ups venous thromboembolism risk during pregnancy

Women with a history of pre-eclampsia are at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) during pregnancy, according to a study.

For the study, researchers used Danish nationwide registries and included 522,545 primiparous women (median age 28 years). Participants were followed until the occurrence of VTE, emigration, death, or the end of the study.

Of the women, 23,330 (4.5 percent) received a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. Those with versus without pre-eclampsia had similar age but a higher burden of comorbidities.

Over a median follow-up of 10.2 years, VTE occurred with a greater frequency in the VTE versus the control group (incidence rate, 448.8 vs 309.6 per 1,000 patient-years; adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.43, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.27–1.61).

In an analysis stratified according to the subcategories of VTE, pre-eclampsia was associated with an elevated risk of deep vein thrombosis (adjusted HR, 1.49, 95 percent CI, 1.31–1.70) as well as pulmonary embolism (adjusted HR, 1.36, 95 percent CI, 1.08–1.73).

The findings were consistent with those obtained following landmark analyses during pregnancy, during the puerperium, and after the puerperium.

More studies are needed to address how to improve the clinical management of women with a history of pre-eclampsia to prevent VTE.