Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between maternal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia or gestational hypertension. The US Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was searched for women aged 15–44 years who delivered in a hospital between 2005 and 2014. The patients were categorized into those with and without HSV and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and gestational hypertension were compared between the groups. The analytic sample size (n=8 264 076) was equivalent to a population-based sample size of 40 653 030 patients. After adjusting for significant variables including age, race, income, insurance status, diabetes mellitus (DM), gestational DM, obesity, and multiple gestations, multivariate regression analysis indicated that HSV was associated with a higher OR for gestational hypertension (adjusted OR 1.038; 95% CI 1.004 to 1.072). However, HSV was not associated with pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (OR 1.001; 95% CI 0.968 to 1.035) in univariate regression analysis. The results of the current study suggest that HSV infection is associated with gestational hypertension but not pre-eclampsia. Given the prevalence of HSV infection and its potential association with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, further study of HSV and hypertension in pregnancy is warranted.
Footnotes
LS and YW contributed equally.
Contributors LS supervised the study, contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript and is the guarantor of integrity of the entire study. YW drafted the manuscript and did the statistical analysis. Both authors contributed to the conception and design; acquisition of data and analysis and interpretation of data. Both authors have read and approved the final version to be submitted.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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