What happened after birth to pregnant women undergoing ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) for the diagnosis of hypertension?

The latest Brazilian Guidelines on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) consider an exam as a useful tool during pregnancy, especially during the first half of pregnancy. They also indicate that white coat hypertension as well as masked hypertension may occur in up to one-third of pregnancies. As white coat hypertension has a more favorable diagnosis than gestational hypertension, it remains associated with 50% of pregnancies and is not associated with complications. Elsewhere, 40% of pregnant women develop gestational hypertension. As per the guidelines, the guidance values should be the same for the general population. The aim of this study was to verify the blood pressure behavior after birth in pregnant women who underwent ABPM and whether ABPM in pregnant women may serve as a predictor of preeclampsia and abnormalities in newborns. Between 01 January 2017 and 31 December 2019, 117 ABPM routines in pregnant women were performed at Unicordis. Among them, 40 were requested for the diagnosis of hypertension, and 77 were requested for antihypertensive therapeutic assessment. The study population comprised pregnant women who underwent ABPM for the diagnosis of hypertension. We assessed a population that comprised 31 subjects who underwent ABPM, 17 of whom had normal results and 14 of whom had abnormal results. Of the 14 pregnant women with abnormal blood pressure behavior, only three (21%) had a physiological drop in blood pressure, seven had attenuated descent, and four did not have blood arterial descent. The age of the pregnant women ranged from 21 to 42 years. The gestational age at the beginning of ABPM ranged from 6 to 37 weeks. In the group with normal ABPM, two pregnant women (11.7%) developed preeclampsia during pregnancy. Additionally, in the group with abnormal ABPM, seven pregnant women (50%) developed preeclampsia during pregnancy. In the group with normal ABPM, three newborns had abnormalities (17.6%); in the group with abnormal ABPM, four newborns had abnormalities (28.5%). In the group with normal ABPM, two subjects developed hypertension after birth (11.7%). In the group with abnormal ABPM, ten subjects (71%) remained hypertensive following birth (Table 1). Conclusions: (1) the results show that the proportion of patients who presented with preeclampsia was higher among individuals with abnormal ABPM than that among individuals with normal ABPM. (2) The proportion of subjects with hypertension following birth was higher among individuals with abnormal ABPM than that among individuals with normal ABPM.