Third‐Trimester Maternal Serum Chemerin and Hypertension After Preeclampsia: A Prospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Limited data are available for postpartum hypertension prediction after preeclampsia. METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the association between maternal serum chemerin levels in patients with preeclampsia and blood pressure (BP) levels after delivery in a prospective birth cohort of 15 041 singleton pregnant women. A total of 310 cases among 322 patients with preeclampsia (follow‐up rate, 96.3%) were followed up during a mean 2.8 years after delivery. Compared with matched uncomplicated controls (n=310), serum chemerin measured at ≈35 gestational weeks was significantly increased in preeclampsia (171.8±49.2 versus 140.2±53.5 ng/mL; P<0.01) and positively correlated with the occurrence of postpartum hypertension, defined as either BP ≥130/80 mm Hg (per 1‐SD increase: odds ratio [OR], 4.01 [95% CI, 2.77–5.81]) or as BP ≥140/90 mm Hg (per 1‐SD increase: OR, 1.70 [95% CI, 1.28–2.25]) in patients with preeclampsia. The addition of chemerin levels improved the predictive performance of the clinical variable‐derived prediction models for postpartum hypertension (for BP ≥130/80 mm Hg: area under the curve, 0.903 [95% CI, 0.869–0.937], Δ area under the curve, 0.070, P<0.001; for BP ≥140/90 mm Hg: area under the curve, 0.852 [95% CI, 0.803–0.902], Δ area under the curve, 0.030, P=0.002). The decision curve analysis revealed a net benefit of the chemerin‐based prediction model for postpartum BP ≥130/80 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence supporting the independent predictive role of third‐trimester maternal chemerin levels for postpartum hypertension after preeclampsia. Future study is warranted for external validation of this finding.