Pre-eclampsia linked to kidney disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Women who have pre-eclampsia or who have a low birth weight infant are more likely to develop kidney disease later on.
Pre-eclampsia during pregnancy has already been linked to heart disease in later life. Now, for the first time, doctors at the University of Bergen, Norway, show that pre-eclampsia also increases the risk of kidney disease.

They studied a group of three quarters of a million women who gave birth to their first child between 1967 and 1998. During follow up of 16 years, 588 of these women had a kidney biopsy - taken in this study as a marker of kidney disease. Those who had pre-eclampsia had a 2.5 times higher risk of kidney disease and the risk was greater still if they delivered a low brith weight infant. The increased risk applied to all types of kidney disease and was greatest in the five years following the birth. The reason for this link remains uncertain. It could be that the same mechanisms underlie both pre-eclampsia and kidney disease. Or perhaps pre-eclampsia causes or aggravates pre-existing kidney problems. It may be worthwhile monitoring the health of women who have had pre-eclampsia in case they develop kidney disease.

Source
Journal of th American Society of Nephrology online 19th January 2006

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