Getting to the Bottom of the Association Between HIV and Preeclampsia

Antiretroviral therapy is recommended for all HIV-positive women, in part because it prevents HIV transmission to the neonate; but does this treatment have adverse effects on obstetric outcomes? Italian investigators reviewed pregnancy records of 453 HIV-positive women (66% of whom received highly active antiretroviral therapy [HAART] during pregnancy) and 84,272 HIV-negative women seen at a single center between 1989 and 2015 to estimate the incidence of preeclampsia.

HIV-positive women compared with HIV-negative women had significantly higher risk for preeclampsia (10.2% vs. 4.1%), early-onset preeclampsia (3.5% vs. 1.4%), late-onset preeclampsia (6.6% vs. 2.6%), and delivery before 37 weeks' gestation (11.0% vs. 4.7%). However, among wome…