Children of preeclamptic mothers at risk for pulmonary hypertension.(Obstetrics)(Brief Article)

SAN DIEGO -- Children born to preeclamptic mothers are more likely to have pulmonary hypertension, compared with children born from uncomplicated pregnancies, results from a small study have demonstrated.

The finding provides "the very first evidence that preeclampsia leaves a persistent and potentially fatal imprint in the pulmonary circulation of the offspring, which predisposes them to exaggerated hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in later life," Pierre-Yves Jayet, M.D., reported at a meeting sponsored by the American Physiological Society.

As part of an ongoing collaboration between the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Swiss Cardiovascular Research Institute in Bern, and the Bolivian High Altitude Research Institute in La Paz.

Dr. Jayet and his associates hypothesized that children born to mothers who had preeclampsia are predisposed to pulmonary hypertension at high altitude. To test this hypothesis, the investigators used echocardiography to measure systolic pulmonary artery pressure ...