Preeclampsia in Pregnancy Puts Black Women at Higher Risk for Stroke

By Cara Murez, HealthDay

While preeclampsia and stroke during pregnancy are far more common in Black women in the United States, almost all study of links between these two conditions has been done on white women.

In a new study, researchers worked to better understand the risks.

This included examining 25 years of data involving 59,000 participants in the Black Women’s Health Study.

The researchers found that Black women with a history of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDOP) had about a 66% heightened long-term risk of stroke.

“Our findings could provide a partial explanation for the disproportionately high occurrence of stroke among Black women compared to other populations,” said author Dr. Shanshan Sheehy, an assistant professor of medicine from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Preeclampsia is a dangerous complication of late pregnancy marked by high blood pressure. Eclampsia is a severe condition that can follow, resulting in seizures.

Preeclampsia affects between 2% and 8% of pregnancies. Among U.S. Black women, the rate of preeclampsia and eclampsia is 60% higher than in white women.

That is seen in numbers of the two conditions, with 70 cases per 1,000 deliveries reported for Black women in 2014 compared to 43 per 1,000 deliveries for white women.

Researchers said there has also been a concerning rise in severe preeclampsia rates among Black women in recent years.

Read the rest of the original article to learn more about the studies conducted by the American Heart Association.

Learn more about the increasing rate of maternal mortality for Black women in this Breaking News article.

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