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This study's primary purpose is to determine the relationship between aspirin metabolism and markers of metabolic dysfunction among patients at risk for preeclampsia.
Women who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are more likely to develop and die of cardiovascular disease later in life, even if they are otherwise healthy. Importantly, women who had preeclampsia have an exaggerated vascular responsiveness to hypertensive stimuli, such as high-salt intake, compared to women who had a healthy pregnancy. The reason why this occurs is unclear but may be related to impaired endothelial function and dysregulation of the angiotensin system that occurs during the preeclamptic pregnancy and persists postpartum, despite the remission of clinical symptoms. While the association between a history of preeclampsia and vascular dysfunction leading to elevated CVD risk is well known, the mechanisms underlying this dysfunction remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of vascular mineralocorticoid receptor, the terminal receptor in the angiotensin system that contributes to blood pressure regulation, in mediating exaggerated microvascular endothelial dysfunction before and after a high-salt stimulus. This will help us better understand the mechanisms of microvascular dysfunction these women, and how inhibition of these receptors may improve microvascular function. In this study, we use the blood vessels in the skin as a representative vascular bed for examining mechanisms of microvascular dysfunction in humans. Using a minimally invasive technique (intradermal microdialysis for the local delivery of pharmaceutical agents) we examine the blood vessels in a nickel-sized area of the skin.
Though cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women, traditional epidemiology in this area has focused on later life, when cardiometabolic risk has already exacted a cumulative toll on the vascular system. Recent data from the investigators and others has highlighted pregnancy as a unique, early moment of cardiovascular stress in young women that may "unmask" CVD propensity. It is unclear if PreE simply represents a "failed stress test" or directly contributes to the pathophysiology of future CVD. While mechanistic studies have largely been the purview of model-based studies, endothelial dysfunction has emerged as central to the pathogenesis of both PreE and peripartum cardiac dysfunction. Indeed, biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction and angiogenic imbalance during pregnancy have been shown to remain elevated at least 6 months post-partum. Moreover, peri-partum endothelial dysfunction can persist for years post-delivery and remains a significant risk factor for CVD (even after adjustment for other traditional risk factors). While these findings suggest that PreE-associated endothelial dysfunction and inflammation may contribute to early myocardial dysfunction that presages HF risk decades before its onset, the modifiable epidemiology of PreE-associated LVDD, including potential mechanisms of risk, remains unclear, limited by lack of precision molecular phenotypes accessible in a large number of American women across race. Ultimately, understanding the epidemiology and pathobiology of PreE-associated myocardial dysfunction affords a unique opportunity to identify women at risk with a longer lead-time for risk factor modification to interrupt CVD. The investigators hypothesize that persistent structural-functional myocardial alterations after PreE are linked to pre- and post-gravid cardiometabolic risk factors (SA1), functional and hemodynamic impairment (SA2) and select pathways of vascular and inflammatory stress relevant to HF risk (SA3). Despite extensive study on the role of inflammation/ischemia in PreE, there have been no large studies connecting these phenotypes with early PP functional response and biochemical alterations, a key barrier to designing studies for improving CVD/HF in women. SA1: To identify pregnancy-specific clinical factors related to postpartum HFpEF phenotypes Clinical Implication: Improve identification of women at highest risk for developing post-PreE LV diastolic dysfunction (a harbinger of HFpEF). SA2: To define functional and hemodynamic signatures of early HFpEF due to preeclampsia Clinical Implication: Identify women at highest risk for developing early HFpEF. SA3: To identify shared pathophysiologic mechanistic pathways for PreE-associated HFpEF Clinical Implication: Identify targetable pathways for post-PreE cardiac dysfunction that may prevent/ delay HFpEF development.
Women pregnant between 11-14 weeks gestation will be enrolled with blood samples collected to evaluate for preeclampsia.
The purpose of The Preeclampsia Registry is to collect and store medical and other information from women who have been medically diagnosed with preeclampsia or a related hypertensive (high blood pressure) disorder of pregnancy such as eclampsia or HELLP syndrome, their family members, and women who have not had preeclampsia to serve as controls. Information from participants will be used for medical research to try to understand why preeclampsia occurs, how to predict it better, and to develop experimental clinical trials of new treatments. The Registry will consist of a web-based survey and mechanism for collecting and reviewing medical records. This data will be utilized for immediate investigator-driven cross-sectional research projects (after proposal review by the Registry's scientific advisory board and as directed by the PI). Participants may also choose to be contacted regarding possible participation in future studies, about providing a biospecimen, as well as investigator-driven clinical trials. The Registry is anticipated to exist long-term and to serve as a foundation of participants from which to draw for studies of preeclampsia, anticipated to evolve as our scientific understanding of preeclampsia evolves.
Women who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease later in life, even if they are otherwise healthy. The reason why this occurs may be related to lasting blood vessel damage after the pregnancy but there are currently no specific treatment strategies to prevent this disease progression. This study addresses this public health issue by examining whether starting low dose aspirin therapy after pregnancy is an effective treatment for lasting blood vessel damage in order to inform better clinical management of cardiovascular disease risk in women who have had preeclampsia.
The goal of this observational trial is to determine the resting cardiac output (CO) using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in a cohort of people with untreated preeclampsia, and a cohort of healthy normotensive pregnant people.
The purpose of this research study is to evaluate the effect of low-dose aspirin on recovery from severe preeclampsia (a high blood pressure disorder of pregnancy) among women who have given birth. We hypothesize that taking aspirin for the first week after giving birth will enhance recovery from preeclampsia by decreasing the levels of a protein called soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase (sFlt-1), which is thought to be a main contributor to the development of preeclampsia, and speeding up return to a normal blood pressure.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (including preeclampsia) are among the leading causes of pregnancy complications and maternal deaths worldwide. They also increase the risks to the babies. Numerous interventions have been suggested in order to reduce the rate of preeclampsia. Low-dose aspirin is the most beneficial prophylactic approach in this regard. Nevertheless, aspirin failure is not uncommon. The genetic, laboratory, and clinical factors associated with low-dose aspirin failure in the prevention of preeclampsia are largely unknown. The presence of a genetic variant in PAR4 receptor expressed on platelets, is associated with increased platelet function and possibly with aspirin failure.
The Achieve Trial is a randomized clinical trial to test whether lowering blood pressure to less than 140/90 mmHg in women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy will prolong pregnancy.