Preeclampsia is a pregnancy disorder affecting ~5-10% of pregnancies in the United States.
Women who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are more likely to develop and die of
cardiovascular disease later in life, even if they are otherwise healthy. The reason why this
occurs is unclear but may be related to blood vessel damage and increased inflammation that
occurs during the preeclamptic pregnancy and persists postpartum. Low dose aspirin (LDA;
75-150mg/daily) is currently the most effective and clinically accepted therapy for reducing
preeclampsia prevalence in women at high risk for developing the syndrome. The purpose of
this study is to interrogate the mechanisms by which LDA therapy mitigates persistent
vascular dysfunction in postpartum women who have had preeclampsia.
In this study, the investigators use the blood vessels in the skin as a representative
vascular bed for examining mechanisms of microvascular dysfunction in humans. Using a
minimally invasive technique (intradermal microdialysis for the local delivery of
pharmaceutical agents) they examine the blood vessels in a dime-sized area of the skin in
women who have had a history of preeclampsia. As a compliment to these measurements, they
also draw blood from the subjects and isolate the inflammatory cells.