Association between preeclampsia in daughters and risk of cardiovascular disease in parents.

Preeclampsia and cardiovascular disease (CVD) might share heritable underlying mechanisms. We investigated whether preeclampsia in daughters is associated with CVD in parents. In a register-based cohort study, we used Cox regression to compare rates of CVD (ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction) in parents with ≥ 1 daughters who had preeclampsia and parents whose daughters did not have preeclampsia in Denmark, 1978-2018. Our cohort included 1,299,310 parents, of whom 87,251 had ≥ 1 daughters with preeclampsia and 272,936 developed CVD during 20,252,351 years of follow-up (incidence rate 135/10,000 person-years). Parents with one daughter who had preeclampsia were 1.19 times as likely as parents of daughters without preeclampsia to develop CVD at age < 55 years (hazard ratio [HR] 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13-1.25). Having ≥ 2 daughters who had preeclampsia yielded an HR of 1.88 (95% CI 1.39-2.53). The corresponding HRs for CVD at ≥ 55 years of age were 1.13 (95% CI 1.12-1.15) and 1.27 (95% CI 1.16-1.38). Patterns of association were similar for all CVD subtypes. Effect magnitudes did not differ for mothers and fathers (p = 0.52). Analyses by timing of preeclampsia onset in daughters suggested a tendency toward stronger associations with earlier preeclampsia onset, particularly in parents < 55 years. Preeclampsia in daughters was associated with increased risks of CVD in parents. Increasing strength of association with increasing number of affected daughters, equally strong associations for mothers and fathers, and stronger associations for CVD occurring before age 55 years suggest that preeclampsia and CVD share common heritable mechanisms.

The cost-effectiveness of one-time opportunistic screening for atrial fibrillation in different age cohorts of inhabitants in Denmark aged 65 years and above: a Markov modelled analysis.

AIMS: The objective was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of one-time opportunistic screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) in general practice in citizens aged ≥65 years in Denmark compared to a no-screening alternative following current Danish practice. METHODS AND RESULTS: A decision tree and a Markov model were designed to simulate costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in a hypothetical cohort of citizens aged ≥65 years equivalent to the Danish population (1 M citizens) over the course of 19 years, using a healthcare and societal perspective. Share of detected AF patients following opportunistic screening was retrieved from a recent Danish screening study, whereas the risk stroke and bleedings in AF patients were based on population data from national registries and their associated costs was obtained from published national registry studies. The present study showed that one-time opportunistic screening for AF was more costly, but also more effective compared to a no-screening alternative. The analysis predicts that one-time opportunistic screening of all Danes aged ≥65 years potentially can identify an additional 10 300 AF patients and prevent 856 strokes in the period considered. The incremental cost of such a screening programme is €56.4 M, with a total gain of 6000 QALYs, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of €9400 per QALY gained. CONCLUSION: Opportunistic screening in general practice in citizens aged ≥65 years in Denmark is cost-effective compared to a willingness-to-pay threshold of €22 000. The study and its findings support a potential implementation of opportunistic screening for AF at the general practitioner level in Denmark.