Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1082532
THE STUDY, published in Circulation, reviewed data on more than a million women who gave birth in Quebec from 1989 to 2013. "We examined outcomes graded on the assessment of CHD severity in the offspring," says Brian J. Potter, MDCM, SM, FRCPC, interventional cardiologist at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and Investigator at the Centre de Recherche du CHUM. "The risk of later cardiovascular hospitalization increased by 43 percent in women who had offspring with severe CHD and by 24 percent in women whose infants had milder forms of CHD." Severe CHD in infa nts were a lso linked to a 2.61-fold increase in risk for heart attack, 3.04-fold increase in risk for other atherosclerotic disease and 43.2-fold increase in risk for cardiac transplant. BUILDING ON EARLIER RESEARCH The study is one of many that have examined the link between infa nts' hea lth at bir th a nd their mothers' subsequent long- term risks for disease a nd mor ta lit y. These include a study published in 2011, a lso in Circulation, f inding that mothers who gave bir th to preterm infa nts or infa nts with low bir th weight were more likely to face hospita lization or death from CV D later in life. More recently, a study in JA M A Network Open found that women who gave bi r t h to i n fa nt s w it h major congen ita l a noma lies faced a 15–37 percent higher risk of premature cardiovascular disease — findings that echo Dr. Potter's results. " We looked at a broad ra nge [of congenita l a noma lies], but our f indings a re ver y simila r," says one of the authors of the JA M A Network Open article, Eya l Cohen, MD, MSc, FRCP(C), Professor of Pediatrics a nd Hea lth Policy, Ma nagement a nd Eva luation at the University of Toronto; Associate Scientist and Interim Program Head, Child Hea lth Eva luative Sciences; a nd sta f f physicia n in the Div ision of Pediatric Medicine at t he Peter Gi lga n Centre for Resea rch a nd Lea r ning at The Hospita l for Sick Children. "A ny time you ca n replicate f indings in more tha n one place, that 's a strong indicator that there may be truth in the f indings." NEXT STEPS The mechanisms behind mothers' increased risk of CV D after giving bir th to a child with CHD have yet to be determined. It is possible that genetics or the added stress of ra ising a child with a congenita l condition may play a role, Dr. Potter's a nd Dr. Cohen's studies hy pothesize. " We know that women are underdiagnosed and undertreated for heart disease," Dr. Potter says. "If we can identify additional factors for predisposition to hea r t disea se, it may prompt physicia ns to be more agg ressive with preventive therapies for women." n BY JOSH GARCIA WOMEN WHO GIVE BIRTH TO INFANTS WITH CONGENITAL HE ART DEFECTS (CHD) HAVE A GRE ATER RISK OF DE VELOPING CARDIOVA SCUL AR DISE A SE (CVD) L ATER IN LIFE THAN WOMEN WHOSE BABIES DO NOT HAVE CHD, A CANADIAN STUDY FOUND. Mothers of Infants with Heart Defects Face Elevated Cardiovascular Risk Later, Researchers Find 1 6❱❱❱❱❱ C L I N I C A L D I S C U S S I O N 1 6