Objective: To calculate the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimates for women following a pregnancy with or without preeclampsia.
Methods: We calculated 10-year, 30-year, and lifetime CVD risk estimates at one year postpartum for women recruited into the Pre-Eclampsia New Emerging Team's prospective cohort.
Results: Complete CVD risk screening data were obtained from 118 control women and 99 preeclamptic women. A total of 18.2% of preeclamptic women and 1.7% of control women had a high 10-year risk (OR 13.08; 95% CI 3.38 to 85.5), 31.3% of preeclamptic women and 5.1% of control women had a high 30-year risk (OR 8.43; 95% CI 3.48 to 23.23), and 41.4% of preeclamptic women and 17.8% of control women had a high lifetime risk for CVD (OR 3.25; 95% CI 1.76 to 6.11).
Conclusions: The association of preeclampsia with the future development of CVD makes pregnancy an early window of opportunity for the preservation of health and prevention of CVD.