MONTREAL -- Women who suffered preeclampsia during pregnancy have almost four times the risk of having a stroke later in life, a new study warns.

The finding comes from an examination of 1,435 participants in the massive Framingham Epidemiological Study, which looked at the causes of cardiovascular disease. The participants' health was assessed every two years between 1948 and 2016.

"Pre-eclampsia is a kind of manifestation of vascular disease that, in the long term, over the years, will develop," summarized Dr. Line Leduc, of the CHU Sainte-Justine.

For about 10 years, she continued, doctors have been realizing that women who suffer from preeclampsia are then at greater risk of certain vascular complications.

Pre-eclampsia is estimated to occur in about one in 25 pregnancies in the United States. It occurs when a woman with previously normal blood pressure begins to develop high blood pressure after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Preeclampsia can have serious health implications for the mother and child if left untreated.

The University of Utah researchers who conducted the new study found that, after adjusting for traditional risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity or being overweight, preeclampsia emerges as a significant risk factor for stroke, Leduc explained.

"This is a first, but are we surprised? No, it doesn't surprise me, because for the last decade or so there have been regular articles of association with long-term vascular complications that are more common, such as chronic hypertension," said Leduc.

This emerging realization that preeclampsia is not a health problem that appears during pregnancy and then disappears without a trace opens the door to discussions with women about factors they can modify to reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, Leduc added.

"Pregnancy is a look into our future, and in the possible complications that could arise, there are sometimes risk factors that are related to lifestyle habits, which are modifiable, and that we can perhaps change to delay the appearance of these complications in the long term," she said.

For the moment, she concluded, the scientific literature tends to show that women with preeclampsia already had underlying vascular disease that had not yet manifested itself.

Since women experiencing their first pregnancy are frequently quite young, the onset of preeclampsia may therefore warn them that they will need to pay particular attention to their cardiorespiratory health throughout their lives.

The findings were published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2021.