Recurrent preeclampsia and perinatal outcome: a study of women with recurrent preeclampsia compared with women with preeclampsia who remained normotensive during their prior pregnancies

Objective. To evaluate the impact of preeclampsia recurrence on perinatal outcome. Materials and methods. A case-controlled study was performed in multiparous women who developed preeclampsia in index pregnancy (n = 64). Among these, women who had preeclampsia in previous pregnancies (n = 21) were compared to those who remained normotensive during their prior pregnancies (n = 43). Maternal and fetal variables were compared. Multivariate logistic analyses were performed to examine the impact of preeclampsia recurrence on fetal loss, preterm delivery, small for gestational age (SGA) occurrence and respiratory distress syndrome adjusted for confounding variables. Results. No statistical significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of age, delivery weeks, steroid use and laboratory markers. Fetal loss was higher in women with recurrent preeclampsia (19.0%) than in women with preeclampsia who had a normotensive pregnancy history (4.7%), with adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 5.77 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-39.54]. Conclusion. Women with recurrent preeclampsia had a higher rate of perinatal loss compared to women with preeclampsia who were normotensive in their prior pregnancies.