Delayed-Onset Postpartum Preeclampsia: Filling in the Clinical Picture

The clinical course of delayed-onset postpartum preeclampsia (DPP; initial diagnosis between 48 hours and 6 weeks postpartum in women without previous diagnoses of preeclampsia, chronic hypertension, or diabetes) remains poorly characterized. Investigators at one U.S. center assessed risk factors and management in 121 women with DPP compared with some 27,000 women with uncomplicated pregnancies (control).

Women with DPP were significantly more likely than control women to be aged ≥35 (26.4% vs. 17.6%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.67), be non-Hispanic black (31.4% vs. 18.0%; aOR, 1.98), have body-mass index ≥30 kg/m² (39.7% vs. 20.1%; aOR, 2.32), and have diagnoses of gestational diabetes (9.9% vs. 5.4%; OR, 1.93). DPP was diagnosed at a medi…