Preeclampsia

* More Evidence Ties Preeclampsia to Long-Term Diastolic Dysfunction

(Reuters Health) – Women who develop preeclampsia may face a wide variety of heart problems long after they give birth, a research review concludes.

“This review demonstrates that the cardiac dysfunction associated with previous pre-eclampsia is quantifiable and persistent. Progression of heart failure from asymptomatic to symptomatic stages carries a fivefold increase in mortality,” write the authors.

“The use of echocardiography could detect cardiac dysfunction in the asymptomatic stage and guide more intensive risk factor modification in these women,” they say.