Acute coronary syndrome during pregnancy and postpartum in France: the nationwide CONCEPTION study

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases, including acute coronary syndromes, are the leading cause of maternal death in many developed countries. OBJECTIVE: We assessed acute coronary syndrome incidences during pregnancy, peripartum, and postpartum periods. We also compared overall pregnancy (ie, covering all 3 periods) incidence with that found in nonpregnant women of childbearing age. STUDY DESIGN: All women aged between 15 and 49 years without ischemic heart disease who delivered between 2010 and 2018 in France were included in the CONCEPTION cohort. Data were extracted from the French National Health Insurance Information System database. Acute coronary syndromes were defined according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes recorded in the principal hospital diagnosis. We used Poisson regression to estimate crude acute coronary syndrome incidences, and tested age-adjusted Poisson models to compare the incidence risk ratio of acute coronary syndrome between pregnant and nonpregnant women, with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Among 6,298,967 deliveries in France, we observed 225 first-time acute coronary syndrome diagnoses during overall pregnancy (overall pregnancy-related acute coronary syndrome incidence, 4.34/100,000 person-years; 1 case/23,000 pregnancies). In multivariate analysis, independent factors associated with acute coronary syndrome were age, social deprivation, obesity, tobacco use, chronic hypertension, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (all P<. 05). Among the nonpregnant women aged 15 to 49 years in the general French population, 18,247 cases of acute coronary syndrome (incidence, 16.5/100,000 person-years) occurred throughout the whole study period (>100 million person- years). Compared with the acute coronary syndrome incidence in nonpregnant women, ageadjusted overall pregnancy-related acute coronary syndrome incidence was lower ( incidence rate ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.57-0.98; P<.05). Although compared with nonpregnant women, age-adjusted incidence rates were lower during pregnancy, risk was increased during peripartum and postpartum periods. CONCLUSION: With an incidence of 4.34 per 100,000 person-years, acute coronary syndrome still accounts for a significant proportion of maternal mortality. The peripartum and postpartum periods remain high-risk periods, and greater efforts should be made in terms of acute coronary syndrome prevention, especially because several cardiovascular risk factors are treatable, such as tobacco use and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.