Objective: To test the hypothesis that postmenopausal women with a history of eclampsia manifest a more high risk lipid profile than postmenopausal women with a history of normal pregnancy.
Setting: The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland, and the Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Participants: Thirty Icelandic women with a history of eclampsia, aged between 50 and 67 years at the time of re-examination (cases) were individually matched for current age, and for age and parity at index pregnancy, to 30 unrelated Icelandic women with a history of normal pregnancy (controls).
Methods: The participating women completed a health and family history questionnaire and underwent a physical examination. Fasting plasma low density lipoprotein diameter, serum lipids, insulin, and glucose were measured.
Results: Mean low density lipoprotein size was significantly smaller and apolipoprotein B concentration was higher in women with prior eclampsia. The percentage of cases receiving blood pressure medication (33%) was significantly greater than controls (6.7%). Thirteen cases had had hypertensive complications in at least one other pregnancy (recurrent subgroup); postmenopausally, these women displayed significantly increased diastolic blood pressures, smaller-sized low density lipoprotein, increased apolipoprotein B, decreased high density lipoprotein2 (HDL2) cholesterol, and increased total cholesterol: HDL cholesterol ratio compared with their controls. Fourteen cases were normotensive in all other pregnancies (nonrecurrent); these showed no differences from their controls.
Conclusions: Dyslipoproteinaemia is more prevalent among postmenopausal women with prior eclampsia, especially with recurrent hypertension in pregnancy, than in postmenopausal women with prior normal pregnancies.