Cholelithiasis is an additional pre-pregnancy clinical risk factor for preeclampsia

PURPOSE: To investigate additional potential clinical risk factors for preeclampsia. METHODS: This is a nested case–control study of preeclampsia and unaffected pregnancies. Cases were either from a prenatal screening database or from a national network of clinicians, and controls were from the same prenatal source. Preeclampsia was defined by international criteria which were endorsed by the Ukraine Ministry of Health. Questionnaires were used to record a range of pregnancy related factors, personal history of health conditions and family history, followed by a telephone interview to collect more details. RESULTS: There were 103 cases, 56 from the prenatal database and 47 from the clinicians, and 480 controls from the database. The two types of case did not differ in terms of age, weight, BMI or parity. Known risk factors were more common in cases than controls. In addition there was a 17-fold higher prevalence of cholelithiasis in cases compared with controls (29.1% versus 1.7%), a highly statistically significant difference (P < 0.0001). There was also an 8.8-fold increase among the mothers of cases and controls (P < 0.0001), and if either the patient or her mother had the disease the increase was 6.4-fold (P < 0.0001). Including the father or sibling did not increase the relative risk. CONCLUSION: Cholelithiasis is a clinical risk factor for preeclampsia which has not previously been reported. If confirmed by additional studies it may have utility in routine prenatal screening and provide insight into the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.