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62 active trials for Pre Eclampsia

Bioimpedence and Arterial Function Monitoring at Birth and in Infants

Babies may be born appropriately grown for gestational age (AGA, >10th centile) or small for gestational age (SGA, <10th centile). Babies who are SGA and have evidence in utero of vascular compromise using antenatal doppler indices are classified as having fetal growth restriction (FGR). Babies with FGR are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease in adult life. Increased arterial stiffness and intima-media thickness are thought to mediate this risk in adults. It is not known how early in life these changes can be robustly detected. In addition, very little is known generally about how babies' hearts and arteries change in structure and function over the first year of life, whether affected by SGA or not. This study aims to understand if there are differences in cardiac and arterial structure and function between babies born AGA or SGA. Within the group of SGA babies, the study team will investigate whether FGR and maternal pre-eclampsia influence these measurements. The effects gestational age on these parameters will be studied within all groups: half of the babies recruited will be <32 weeks gestational age (GA), and half will be ?32 weeks GA. Study participants will have further measurements at 3-6 months of life to assess if cardiac and arterial structure and function change in babies over the first year of life. The study team will use the Vicorder device to measure arterial stiffness, and assess the feasibility of using this device in neonates. The Vicorder will also be used to measure cardiac output. The feasibility and validity of this device for this purpose will be investigated (Vicorder is not validated for cardiac output measurement in infants). Vicorder cardiac output results will be compared to echocardiography and bioimpedence technology (using the NICaS monitor). The study team will use ultrasound for arterial structure measurements of the carotid artery and aorta.

Start: December 2020
Pre-eclampsia and Future Cardiovascular Health: An Underused Opportunity to Improve Family Health

Background: PE (pre-eclampsia) is a common pregnancy-specific vascular hypertensive disease affecting 3-5% of pregnancies. PE independently increases the risk for premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) in mothers and their offspring long-term. PE provides a unique window for early risk profiling and CVD prevention. However, the efficacy of a family oriented lifestyle intervention to lower CVD risk in families with history of PE has not previously been evaluated. Aim: This study will explore the impact of PE on CVD progression 8-12 years from delivery in mothers and their children, and assess whether a lifestyle intervention is useful for lowering mother and child blood pressure and improving the CVD risk profile overall in families with a history of PE. Hypothesis: PE is related with CVD progression mediated by elevated blood pressure. Blood pressure and the CVD risk profile overall is modifiable in mothers and children by a 12-month behavioral lifestyle intervention in families with a history of PE. Study design: Randomized controlled behavioral lifestyle intervention trial where families (mother, child and father from the FINNPEC study) are offered the opportunity to participate in a lifestyle intervention program 8-12 years after a PE pregnancy. 300 PE families will be randomized 1:1 to a 12-month lifestyle intervention program or to a control group. A parallel group of 100 non-PE control families will be assessed at baseline and follow-up. Main outcome: 24 hour mean blood pressure change between baseline and follow-up in mother and child. Significance: This study will provide information on CVD progression in mothers and children 8-12 years from a PE pregnancy. Furthermore, the study assess the effect of a 12-month lifestyle intervention on blood pressure and CVD risk profile overall following a PE pregnancy. Potentially, the study provides the opportunity to identify PE families at highest risk of CVD progression and families amenable to blood pressure and CVD risk profile improvement.

Start: June 2019
Breastfeeding and Postpartum Cardiovascular Health

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are increasingly recognized sex-specific risk factors for premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women. HDP, including preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, confer a 2- to 3-fold increase in the risk of chronic hypertension and ischemic heart disease 10-15 years after delivery. Observational data suggest that breastfeeding can lower maternal blood pressure (BP), risk of metabolic syndrome, and other markers of cardiovascular risk in the short term and long term, possibly by helping to re-set the metabolic changes of pregnancy. We recently demonstrated an 11% reduction in the risk of metabolic syndrome among postpartum women with a variety of complications in pregnancy, including HDP, who breastfed for > 6 months, compared to those who did not breastfeed and those who breastfed for shorter durations. An analysis of 622 postpartum women at Kingston General Hospital showed that breastfeeding women had nearly a 6-mmHg lower systolic BP than women who did not breastfeed with an apparent dose-response effect of breastfeeding duration. Women with pregnancy complications including HDP are vulnerable to early weaning. Interactive, multi-modal approaches targeting a mother's breastfeeding self-efficacy (i.e., confidence about breastfeeding) have been effective in healthy postpartum women. However, breastfeeding support interventions have not yet been tested specifically in HDP women, who stand to derive substantial benefit from breastfeeding. This is an important area to study since nurse-led breastfeeding supportive interventions can be widely applied to the postpartum care of women with HDP and can be integrated into comprehensive CVD risk reduction programs for these women. Our primary outcome is postpartum BP, since hypertension is a key mediating factor in women's heart health. We conducted a feasibility study of a breastfeeding self-efficacy intervention to enhance breastfeeding outcomes among women with HDP showing feasibility (achieving pre-defined targets of a recruitment rate of >50% , attrition rates of < 30%), and > 70% participant satisfaction with the intervention, measured at the 6-month time point. Additionally, data showed trends in both systolic and diastolic BP favoring the intervention group. We are now conducting a multi-site open-label randomized trial to assess for a difference in blood pressure and breastfeeding between groups, and to serve as a cohort of HDP women for longitudinal follow-up.

Start: November 2020
MRI Angiography of Physiological and Pathological Pregnancy Placentas Ex-vivo

Introduction: The placenta is the organ that permits the maternal-fetal exchange of the oxygen and nutrients. The development of its vascular network occurs in the first trimester. Any deficit during this important angiogenesis procedure can lead to the dysfunction of the placental vasculature, which can potentially cause pathologies including preeclampsia (PE) and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). PE concerns 3% of the pregnancy in France. It can occur at any gestational age and leads to serious complications such as eclampsia, the HELLP syndrome or the retro-placental hematoma. IUGR does not only lead to the morbidity and fetal and neonatal mortality, but also has a predisposition for certain pathologies in the adulthood. Many groups have studied the placenta vasculature at the microscopic (histological) scale. However, recent studies show that in addition to the damage at the microvasculature level, the macroscopic placental vessel architecture is also altered. Nonetheless, the origin and the etiology of this phenomenon remains unknown. Since it is difficult to apply in-vivo imaging techniques on pregnant women due to the restriction of usage of contrast agent. Alternatively, ex-vivo MR angiography (MRA) techniques have been developed by our team and others to visualize the entire placental vasculature in a faster way (as compared to corrosion casting). Up to now, only the study of the healthy placenta is done and published. The analysis of the pathological placental vasculature (i.e. PE and IUGR cases) at different gestational age and its comparison to the physiological ones have not been conducted, which will potentially enable a better understanding of the placental vasculature pathology. Objectives: the main objective of this study is to compare the vasculature architecture of the normal and pathological placentas (with possible alteration in the placental vasculature). Methods and analysis: This is a monocentric, prospective, controlled but not randomized study. The investigators expect to include 100 women in Nancy. The pregnant women will be recruited when they arrived at the maternity hospital for delivery, for both the physiological and potential pathological cases. The notice of this study will be given. If no opposition is given by the subject, the placenta may be collected. This study will not collect the patient consent but only the opposition declaration will be collected.

Start: November 2019
Vascular Biomarkers Predictive of the Progression From Gestational Hypertension to Preeclampsia in Pregnant Women

Hypertension during pregnancy remains a leading cause of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality. The frequency (5 to 10% of pregnancies) and potential severity of these diseases, both for the mother and the child, are reasons for standardizing and optimizing medical practices. The cause of hypertension during pregnancy and in particular the pathophysiology of preeclampsia remains poorly understood. Guidelines distinguish these two entities by the existence of proteinuria from and after the 20th week of amenorrhea and by maternal-foetal complications, more serious in pre-eclampsia than in gestational hypertension. During gestational hypertension and preeclampsia acute placental vasculature and blood flow abnormalities were observed, maybe due to generalized vascular endothelial activation and vasospasm resulting in systemic hypertension and organ hypoperfusion. Endothelial dysfunction and abnormal expression of several specific blood biomarkers are now well accepted as characteristics of preeclampsia. However, the progression of gestational hypertension to preeclampsia is difficult to predict; between 15 and 40 % of gestational hypertension cases progress to preeclampsia, suggesting that it is the same worsening disease. Endothelial dysfunction could be at the origin of gestational hypertension, and subsequent development of preeclampsia through an imbalance between pro- and anti-angiogenic factors. The main objective of this research is to assess whether the alteration of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in pregnant women with stable hypertension is correlated with the occurrence of preeclampsia later during pregnancy.

Start: September 2020