NEW YORK, Oct 05 (Reuters Health) -- High cholesterol is a well-known risk factor for heart disease. Results of a new study also suggest that high blood levels of cholesterol are a risk factor for preeclampsia, a comparatively rare disorder of pregnancy characterized by dangerous elevations in blood pressure, say researchers in Boston.
Preeclampsia may also auger devastating complications to mother and unborn child in the form of progression to eclampsia, an emergency condition marked by convulsions and potential organ failure.
Dr. Gary Curhan of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and colleagues used data from the long-term Nurses' Health Study to identify "women who reported either pregnancy-related high blood pressure or toxemia-preeclampsia" between 1991 and 1995. Of about 18,000 pregnancies, 216 were complicated by gestational hypertension without preeclampsia, while 86 cases of preeclampsia could be confirmed.
Senior study author Curhan and his team determined that "a history of elevated cholesterol before pregnancy... was associated with an increased risk of developing preeclampsia." Specifically, women with high cholesterol had twice the likelihood of developing the disorder than did women with normal cholesterol levels.
But high cholesterol levels did not seem to increase the risk for simple gestational hypertension, according to the study, which is published in the October issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The study authors suggest that cholesterol levels could be useful as identifiers of women at risk for the development of preeclampsia, thereby allowing for early clinical intervention.
