Pregnancy loss ups heart disease risk

Pregnancy loss ups heart disease risk
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Pregnancy loss ups heart disease risk, Women with a history of pregnancy loss are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in life than other women, says a study.

Pregnancy (file photo)Women with a history of pregnancy loss are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in life than other women, says a study.

"These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that the metabolic, hormonal and hemostatic pathway alterations that are associated with a pregnancy loss may contribute to the development of coronary heart disease in adulthood," said Donna Parker from Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in the US.

The study stemmed from the analysis of data from the maternity experiences of a sample of 77,701 women.

Of those, 30.3 per cent reported a history of miscarriage, 2.2 per cent a history of stillbirth, and 2.2 per cent a history of both. "We found that the adjusted odds for coronary heart disease in women who had one or more stillbirths was 1.27 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI), which is a measure of reliability, 1.07-1.51) compared with women who had no stillbirths," Parker added. "For women with a history of one miscarriage, the odds ratio was 1.19 (95 per cent CI, 1.08-1.32). For women with a history of two or more miscarriages, the odds ratio was 1.18 (95 per cent CI, 1.04-1.34) compared with no miscarriage," she said.

The researchers found no significant association of ischemic stroke and pregnancy loss.

The association between pregnancy loss and coronary heart disease appeared to be independent of hypertension, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and white blood cell count.

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