Research
Basic science: Obstetrics
Early pregnancy lipid concentrations and spontaneous preterm birth

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Seattle, WA, June 20, 2006.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2007.04.024Get rights and content

Objective

Women who deliver preterm infants may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, perhaps related to dyslipidemia.

Study Design

In a nested case control study of women with spontaneous preterm birth, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides were evaluated. Lipid concentrations and gestational changes, as well as risk for preterm birth, were evaluated in women who delivered <34 (n = 23), ≥34-<37 (n = 67), and ≥37 weeks (n = 199).

Results

High cholesterol or triglycerides ≤15 weeks were associated with a 2.8-fold (1.0-7.9) and 2.0-fold (1.0-3.9) increased risk for preterm birth <34 weeks and ≥34-<37 weeks, respectively. Overweight women who delivered <34 weeks had particularly elevated early pregnancy concentrations of cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein; lean women with moderate preterm birth had elevated triglycerides. There was a reduced triglyceride response in the first half of pregnancy among women who delivered <34 weeks.

Conclusion

Our results indicate the presence of dyslipidemia in women with spontaneous preterm birth.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

The Pregnancy Exposures and Preeclampsia Prevention (PEPP) study is a prospective study of women enrolled at their first prenatal visit and followed through the postpartum visit. Women were recruited from clinics and private practices from 1997-2001. The study was approved by the institutional review board, and all participants provided written informed consent. We excluded women with preexisting hypertension or diabetes, and those with pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia (de novo systolic

Results

Women with spontaneous preterm birth at ≥34-<37 weeks’ gestation were similar to women with term births with respect to sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics (Table 1). Women who delivered <34 weeks were almost 5 times as likely to report that they themselves weighed less than 2500 g at delivery than women who delivered at term, and they were 4 times as likely to report that a mother or sister had pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia or transient hypertension.

There were

Comment

Our study provided novel evidence that women with spontaneous preterm births, following otherwise uncomplicated pregnancies, had evidence of dyslipidemia before 15 weeks’ gestation compared to women with term births. Early pregnancy concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol increased among overweight women in a linear fashion as gestational age at delivery decreased, and overweight women with preterm birth <34 weeks had particularly elevated early pregnancy concentrations of total

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Hyagriv N. Simhan, MD, MSCR, for his assistance with the methods.

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    • Cited by (0)

    Funding was provided by NIH-2PO1-HD30367 (Preeclampsia Program Project) and National Institutes of Health NIH-5MO1-RR00056 (Magee-Womens Clinical Research Center).

    Cite this article as: Catov JM, Bodnar LM, Kip KE, et al. Early pregnancy lipid concentrations and spontaneous preterm birth. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2007;197:610.e1-610.e7.

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