Clinical risk factors for preeclampsia

Preeclampsia, diagnosed by increased blood pressure and de novo proteinuria, is a pregnancy-specific disease associated with a high incidence of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Identification of women at risk for this potential life threatening disease might enable the clinician to identify and counsel patients adequately. A major concern in the identification of clinical risk factors for the development of preeclampsia is confusion over the clinical classification of this syndrome which has resulted from using different definitions. For this in-depth review and meta-analysis only well defined reports were selected. Maternal constitutional and environmental factors as well as pregnancy-specific changes as risk factors for the development of preeclampsia were studied. This review describes both dependent and the following independent risk factors for the development of preeclampsia: chronic hypertension, renal disease, diabetes, nulliparity, and long pregnancy interval.

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