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The obstetrical consequences of ischemic stroke in women of childbearing age

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Although recurrence risk is a major concern for women having had an ischemic stroke (IS) and who are planning a pregnancy, studies on recurrence risk and pregnancy outcomes are scarce and heterogeneous.

Methods

This retrospective study assessed women aged 15–44 years with a diagnosis of ischemic stroke admitted in the Lyon Stroke Centre, France, between January 2009 and December 2013. The primary outcome was stroke recurrence during pregnancy or the post-partum period. Secondary outcomes were pregnancy complications.

Results

Overall, 104 women with a prior ischemic stroke were included. Mean age at the time of the stroke was 36 ± 6.7 years old. Stroke etiology was large-artery atherosclerosis for 1 woman, cardioembolism for 23 women, and undetermined for 55 women. No antiphospholipid syndrome was found. Among them, 29 women had 58 subsequent pregnancies. Overall, there were three IS recurrence (2.9%), but none occurred during pregnancy. There were 27 miscarriages (47% of pregnancies), two pre-eclampsia (3%), and one stillbirth (1.7%).

Conclusions

We observed no recurrence of IS during pregnancy. The study also highlighted that the risk of miscarriages was higher than general population and that of stillbirth should be further studied.

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Data availability statement

Data are unavailable due to ethical restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

We warmly acknowledge Verena Landel (DRS, Hospices Civils de Lyon) for help in manuscript preparation.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service de Médecine Interne, Unité Médecine Vasculaire, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France

    Jeremy David, Helene Desmurs-Clavel, Anne Long & Judith Catella

  2. Unité d’hémostase Clinique, Hôpital Cardiologique Louis Pradel, 5 Place d’Arsonval, 69003, Lyon, France

    Helene Desmurs-Clavel & Yesim Dargaud

  3. Stroke Department, Pierre Wertheimer Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Laura Mechtouff

  4. Interuniversity Laboratory of Human Movement Biology, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Anne Long & Judith Catella

  5. EA, UFR Laennec, Université Claude Bernard, 4609-Hémostase et CancerLyon 1, Lyon, France

    Yesim Dargaud

  6. Laboratoire d’Excellence du Globule Rouge (Labex GR-Ex), Paris, France

    Judith Catella

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  1. Jeremy David
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Contributions

Conceptualization, J.D., H.D.C. and Y.D.; methodology, J.D., A.L. and H.D.C.; formal analysis, J.D. and H.D.C..; investigation, J.D.; data curation, J.C..; writing—original draft preparation, J.C..; writing—review and editing, J.D., L.M. and J.C.. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Judith Catella.

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Oral informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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Ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to retrospective characteristic.

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David, J., Desmurs-Clavel, H., Mechtouff, L. et al. The obstetrical consequences of ischemic stroke in women of childbearing age. Arch Gynecol Obstet (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-024-07498-y

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