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High blood pressure in pregnancy linked to later brain differences

Gray matter volume was 6.0 mL lower in women who developed high blood pressure during pregnancy than in women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.

Paper by Amanpreet Kaur, Adriana Angarita Fonseca, Hassan Behlouli, Maria Natasha Rajah, Louise Pilote · McGill University Health Centre
Figure 1. Differences in females with a history of new-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy versus females with normotensive pregnancy for morphologic brain structures, (mL)
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Figure 1. Differences in females with a history of new-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy versus females with normotensive pregnancy for morphologic brain…Differences in females with a history of new-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy versus females with normotensive pregnancy for morphologic brain structures, (mL)Kaur et al.

Our read

Populations
Studied:
Case-control study of middle-aged and older women in the UK Biobank, about 30 years
What changed:
Gray matter volume was 6.0 mL lower in women with pregnancy-related high blood pressure than in women with normotensive pregnancies
The catch:
Other health differences between the groups could explain the brain findings
In the record:
The 49th paper on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy with results in people; 160 on record in all.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Middle-aged and older women in the UK Biobank had brain scans and cognitive tests about 30 years after pregnancy in a matched case-control analysis. Researchers matched each woman who developed high blood pressure during pregnancy with four women whose pregnancies involved normal blood pressure, using age at delivery and number of births.

After accounting for clinical and demographic factors, women with pregnancy-related high blood pressure had 6.0 mL less gray matter, brain tissue rich in nerve cell bodies. They also had a 0.5 mL greater volume of white matter hyperintensities—areas that appear bright on magnetic resonance imaging scans. The groups did not differ significantly in measures of white matter’s microscopic structure or in cognitive test results.

Why it matters

Blood vessel health is linked to brain structure and function. The authors suggest that high blood pressure during pregnancy may have long-term consequences for brain health without noticeable symptoms.

Caveats

The matched case-control analysis could not rule out other health differences between the groups as explanations for the brain findings. The findings concern middle-aged and older women in the UK Biobank.

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