Fetal Growth Restriction & Maternal Cardiovascular Risk

BACKGROUND:

Intrauterine growth restriction leads to major neonatal morbidity and mortality. Moreover, recent birth registry studies have suggested that women bearing IUGR babies may have an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

This cohort study tested whether exposed women, with a previous intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) baby, versus unexposed women, with a pregnancy not complicated by IUGR, had elevations in markers of cardiovascular risk. Exposure was defined among a geographically defined cohort as having had a singleton baby in the < 5 %tile of weight for gestational age, in the absence of pre-pregnancy diabetes., hypertension, renal disease, or hypertension in pregnancy; controls had a singleton in the > 20%tile. Four to twelve years postpartum, women were assessed for multiple markers of cardiovascular risk, including blood pressure, lipids, adiposity, glucose and insulin, homocysteine and folate, markers of inflammation, markers of endothelial function, markers of angiogenesis, and markers of vascular function. Data analysis consisted of ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses comparing the outcomes of cardiovascular markers among exposed and unexposed women.