Search

Background Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and pre‐pregnancy hypertension are associated with increased morbidity and mortality for the mother. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between HDP and pre‐pregnancy hypertension with maternal heart failure (HF) within 1 and 5 years of delivery and to examine racial/ethnic differences. Methods and Results We conducted a retrospective cohort study in South Carolina (2004–2016) involving 425 649 women aged 12 to 49 years (58.9% non‐Hispanic White [NHW], 31.5% non‐Hispanic Black [NHB], 9.6% Hispanic) with a live, singleton birth. Incident HF was defined by hospital/emergency department visit and death certificate data. Pre‐pregnancy hypertension and HDP (preeclampsia, eclampsia, or gestational hypertension) were based on hospitalization/emergency department visit and birth certificate data (i.e., gestational hypertension for HDP). The 425 649 women had pre‐pregnancy hypertension without superimposed HDP (pre‐pregnancy hypertension alone; 0.4%), HDP alone (15.7%), pre‐pregnancy hypertension with superimposed HDP (both conditions; 2.2%), or neither condition in any pregnancy (81.7%). Incident HF event rates per 1000 person‐years were higher in NHB than NHW women with HDP (HDP: 2.28 versus 0.96; both conditions: 4.30 versus 1.22, respectively). After adjustment, compared with women with neither condition, incident HF risk within 5 years of delivery was increased for women with pre‐pregnancy hypertension (HR,2.55, 95% CI: 1.31–4.95), HDP (HR,4.20, 95% CI: 3.66–4.81), and both conditions (HR,5.25, 95% CI: 4.24–6.50). Conclusions Women with HDP and pre‐pregnancy hypertension were at higher HF risk (highest for superimposed preeclampsia) within 5 years of delivery. NHB women with HDP had higher HF risk than NHW women, regardless of pre‐pregnancy hypertension.

Objective Stroke risk due to intracranial atherosclerosis increases with degree of arterial stenosis. We evaluated the previously unexplored role of collaterals in modifying stroke risk in intracranial atherosclerosis and impact on subsequent stroke characteristics.

Background Intracranial atherosclerosis is a leading cause of stroke, but little is known about the composition of the intracranial atherosclerotic lesion and how intracranial plaque morphology is related to the risk of stroke. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR MRI) has been used in patients with extracranial carotid atherosclerosis as an in vivo tool to identify, with high-interrater agreement, histologically defined plaque components (i.e., intraplaque hemorrhage, fibrous cap, and lipid core), which have been shown to be predictors of recurrent stroke. With careful imaging the components of atherosclerotic plaque can be visualized in the intracranial arteries using HR MRI, but there are no reports of reproducibility or interrater reliability. Methods/Study design The Characterization of intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis using high-resolution MRI (CHIASM) study is a single-center NIH-funded prospective observational study, to (1) demonstrate high -interrater agreement for identifying intracranial plaque components on HR MRI, (2) determine the frequency of these components in symptomatic versus asymptomatic plaques, and (3) estimate the 1-year rate of stroke in the territory of high-risk plaque components. CHIASM will recruit 90 patients with 50–99% intracranial atherosclerosis to undergo HRMRI of the intracranial artery plaque at enrollment and 1-year follow-up. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects will be recruited. Conclusion Determination of good interrater reliability is an important first step in the development of HR MRI as a tool to predict risk in patients with intracranial atherosclerosis. This study will inform the design of future multicenter studies to determine the prevalence and prognosis of intracranial atherosclerotic plaque components. Such studies could lead to new understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of cerebral ischemia in patients with atherosclerotic intracranial stenosis, improvements in risk stratification, and potentially to new treatments of this common and serious disease.