and they were also at greater risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to findings published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Peter M Barrett, MB, of the University College Cork (Ireland), and colleagues conducted a population-based cohort study using data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register, National Patient Register, and the Swedish Renal Register to identify women who had live births and stillbirths. They then used anonymized unique personal identification numbers to cross-reference the registries.
From a full cohort of nearly 2 million women who gave birth during 1973-2012, and during a median follow-up of 20.7 years, 13,032 women experienced stillbirth, which, until 2008, was defined as fetal death after 28 weeks’ gestation, and after 2008, as occurring after 22 weeks. Women were excluded if they had any diagnosis of renal disease before their first pregnancy, as well as for a history of cardiovascular disease, chronic hypertension, diabetes, and certain other conditions at baseline.
Overall, 18,017 women developed CKD, and 1,283 developed ESRD. The fully adjusted model showed adjusted hazard ratios of 1.26 for CKD (95% confidence interval, 1.09-1.45) and 2.25 for ESRD (95% CI, 1.55-3.25) in women who had experienced stillbirth, compared with those who had not experienced stillbirth.
The researchers reported that associations between stillbirth and renal disease existed independently of underlying medical and obstetric comorbidities, such as congenital malformations, being small for gestational age, and preeclampsia, and that when those comorbidities were excluded, “the associations between stillbirth and maternal renal disease were strengthened (CKD: aHR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.13-1.57; and ESRD: aHR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.86-4.68).”
In addition, they noted that there was no significant association between stillbirth and either CKD or ESRD in women who had prepregnancy medical comorbidities (CKD: aHR, 1.13; 95% CI 0.73-1.75; and ESRD: aHR 1.49; 95% CI, 0.78-2.85).
“Further research is required to better understand the underlying pathophysiology of this association and to determine whether affected women would benefit from closer surveillance and follow-up for future hypertension and renal disease,” the authors concluded.
The work was performed within the Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme and was funded by grants from several organizations. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Barret PM et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Feb 26. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.02.031.