Infection May Raise Postpartum Stroke Risk
Pregnant women with certain types of infections during delivery have an increased risk of stroke in the first 30 days postpartum, according to new preliminary findings being presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2019.
In particular, researchers found after examining 3.5 million delivery hospitalizations from the 2013 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Readmissions Database that bladder infection, pneumonia, and sepsis were strongly associated with elevated stroke risk in new mothers within the first month post-delivery.
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However, the researchers emphasized that postpartum stroke is a relatively rare occurrence in the United States. A total of 225 of 79,656 women who were readmitted to the hospital during this time period were readmitted for stroke.
“These results reflect the diversity of the United States and are widely generalizable to the US population of women of childbearing age,” said lead study author Eliza C. Miller, MD, assistant professor of neurology in the Division of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, in a press release.1
“At the same time, the number of stroke readmissions was small, so it's important not to draw the conclusion that everyone who has an infection is going to have a stroke. The study shows an association but does not prove that the infection caused the stroke,” Dr Miller said.1
Other key findings included:
- Women who had an infection during delivery hospitalization had a nearly 5-fold increased risk of readmission for stroke.
- Women readmitted for stroke had 3-fold higher odds of having had an infection during their delivery hospitalization compared with women who were readmitted for other causes.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
1. Infection during delivery linked to greater risk of stroke after delivery [press release]. Dallas, TX. January 30, 2019. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/infection-during-delivery-linked-to-greater-risk-of-stroke-after-delivery?preview=5fd5. Accessed on January 31, 2019.