The pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and is rapidly evolving as a major threat to global health. In a recent study, researchers found that infecting with COVID-19 was causally associated with a higher risk of pregnancy hypertension. The study findings were published in the journal Pregnancy Hypertension in December 2021, issue.
Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy complicate 6–8% of pregnancies and lead to significant maternal or fetal morbidity and mortality. However, no study has focused on the association between COVID19 and hypertension disorders in pregnancy. Therefore, Dr Lu Hua and his team conducted a study to apply the Mendelian randomization (MR) design to explore the potential causal association between COVID-19 and the risk of hypertension disorders in pregnancy.
Mendelian Randomization (MR) is a recently emerged technique that utilizes genetic variants of risk factors as instruments to assess the causality between the risk factor and a particular disease.
The researchers used data on the associations between SNPs and the risk of hypertension disorders in pregnancy obtained from a study based on a very large cohort of European population. Their primary genetic instrument comprised 8 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with COVID-19 at genome-wide significance. They conducted a random-effects inverse-variance-weighted method for the main analysis, with a complementary analysis of the weighted median and MR-Egger approaches.
Key findings of the study:
Upon analysis, the researchers found that genetically predicted COVID-19 was significantly positively associated with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.111.
They further found similar estimates [OR 1.098] on weighted median regression.
They noted that both funnel plots and MR-Egger intercepts suggest no directional pleiotropic effects.
The authors concluded, "Our findings provide direct evidence that there is a shared genetic predisposition so that patients infected with COVID-19 may be causally associated with increased risk of hypertension disorders in pregnancy."
They further highlighted that positive measures on public health should be taken to deal with this subsequent social burden.
For further information:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.preghy.2021.08.112