Pre‐eclampsia, gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders in patients with intracranial aneurysms: A case–control study

Abstract Background and purpose The aim of this study was to define the prevalence of pre‐eclampsia, gestational hypertension (HT), chronic HT, and gestational diabetes during pregnancy in a defined population of patients with saccular intracranial aneurysms (sIAs). Methods We included all patients with sIA, first admitted to the Neurosurgery Department of Kuopio University Hospital from its defined catchment population between 1990 and 2015, who had given birth for the first time in 1990 or later. The patients’ medical records were reviewed, and clinical data were linked with prescription drug usage, hospital diagnoses and causes of death, obtained from nationwide registries. The prevalences of pre‐eclampsia, other hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes in patients were compared with a matched control population ( n = 324). In addition, the characteristics of sIA disease in patients with pre‐eclampsia were compared to those of sIA patients without pre‐eclampsia. Results A total of 169 patients with sIA fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Of these, 22 (13%) had pre‐eclampsia and 32 (19%) had other hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. In 324 matched controls who had given birth, the prevalence of pre‐eclampsia was 5% ( n = 15) and other hypertensive disorders were diagnosed in 10% ( n = 34). There was no significant difference in prevalence of gestational diabetes (12% vs. 11%). Patients with sIA with pre‐eclampsia more frequently had irregularly shaped aneurysms ( p = 0·003). Conclusions Pre‐eclampsia was significantly more frequent in patients with sIA than in their population controls. Irregularly shaped aneurysms were more frequent in sIA patients with pre‐eclampsia. Further studies are required to determine whether history of pre‐eclampsia may indicate an elevated risk for sIA formation or rupture.