🚨❤️ Pregnancy as a Cardiovascular Stress Test: A Window Into Lifelong Cardiovascular Health

🤰❤️ Pregnancy may be one of our earliest cardiovascular stress tests.

A Lancet editorial reminds us that cardiovascular disease complicates up to 15% of pregnancies and accounts for up to one-third of maternal deaths. Gestational hypertension predicts a 6× higher risk of later chronic hypertension, while pre-eclampsia is associated with up to a 3.5× higher risk of heart failure.

💡 The message for physicians: adverse pregnancy outcomes are cardiovascular warning signals—not endpoints. Think preconception ➡️ pregnancy ➡️ postpartum ➡️ lifelong prevention. 🫀