title: Women with pregnancy induced hypertension have a higher risk of developing essential hypertension - a case control study from a tertiary care center in Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the association of essential hypertension with pregnancy-induced hypertension in women.
  
  
  METHODS
  The case-control study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from January 2012 to March 2013, and comprised on hypertensive female patients who visited the outpatient medicine clinics. The patients were aged 18-65 years and had been pregnant atleast once. Cases were women diagnosed as hypertensive or pre-hypertensive and the controls were normotensive women. The primary outcome was essential hypertension and the main exposure was pregnancy-induced hypertension.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 258 subjects, 175(49.7%) were cases and 177(50.3%) were controls. The overall mean age was 44.6±13.3 years. Odds Ratio (95% Confidence interval) for pregnancy-induced hypertension for the outcome of essential hypertension was 1.6 (0.88, 3.0). The odds ratio increased further to 2.5(1.2, 5.2) after adjustment for age, family history of hypertension and physical activity. The association remained after further adjusting for body mass index in the final model; 2.20 (1.06, 4.57).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women who develop hypertension in pregnancy are at higher risk of developing essential hypertension later in life.
authors.affiliation: MBBS, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Amna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qasim
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bashir
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Royal Institute Medical Science, Multan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sajid
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Mehmood
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Riaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Aysha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D000075222:Essential Hypertension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Pregnancy induced hypertension, Essential hypertension, Women, Pakistan, South Asia.