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NCT06741436Recruiting

Exercise Testing After Preeclampsia

Identification of Early HFpEF After Preeclampsia by Exercise Stress Testing

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 14 Apr 2026

Brief summary (registry, in English)

Though cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women, traditional epidemiology in this area has focused on later life, when cardiometabolic risk has already exacted a cumulative toll on the vascular system. Recent data from the investigators and others has highlighted pregnancy as a unique, early moment of cardiovascular stress in young women that may "unmask" CVD propensity. It is unclear if PreE simply represents a "failed stress test" or directly contributes to the pathophysiology of future CVD. While mechanistic studies have largely been the purview of model-based studies, endothelial dysfunction has emerged as central to the pathogenesis of both PreE and peripartum cardiac dysfunction. Indeed, biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction and angiogenic imbalance during pregnancy have been shown to remain elevated at least 6 months post-partum. Moreover, peri-partum endothelial dysfunction can persist for years post-delivery and remains a significant risk factor for CVD (even after adjustment for other traditional risk factors). While these findings suggest that PreE-associated endothelial dysfunction and inflammation may contribute to early myocardial dysfunction that presages HF risk decades before its onset, the modifiable epidemiology of PreE-associated LVDD, including potential mechanisms of risk, remains unclear, limited by lack of precision molecular phenotypes accessible in a large number of American women across race. Ultimately, understanding the epidemiology and pathobiology of PreE-associated myocardial dysfunction affords a unique opportunity to identify women at risk with a longer lead-time for risk factor modification to interrupt CVD. The investigators hypothesize that persistent structural-functional myocardial alterations after PreE are linked to pre- and post-gravid cardiometabolic risk factors (SA1), functional and hemodynamic impairment (SA2) and select pathways of vascular and inflammatory stress relevant to HF risk (SA3). Despite extensive study on the role of inflammation/ischemia in PreE, there have been no large studies connecting these phenotypes with early PP functional response and biochemical alterations, a key barrier to designing studies for improving CVD/HF in women. SA1: To identify pregnancy-specific clinical factors related to postpartum HFpEF phenotypes Clinical Implication: Improve identification of women at highest risk for developing post-PreE LV diastolic dysfunction (a harbinger of HFpEF). SA2: To define functional and hemodynamic signatures of early HFpEF due to preeclampsia Clinical Implication: Identify women at highest risk for developing early HFpEF. SA3: To identify shared pathophysiologic mechanistic pathways for PreE-associated HFpEF Clinical Implication: Identify targetable pathways for post-PreE cardiac dysfunction that may prevent/ delay HFpEF development.

Status (registry)
Recruiting
Study type
Observational
Enrollment
500 (estimated)
First submitted
9 Dec 2024
Start date
18 Feb 2025
Primary completion date
30 Jun 2029
Lead sponsor
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
NCT number
NCT06741436

What you commit to

  • Study type: Observational
  • Planned participants: 500
  • From 18 Feb 2025 to the primary completion date, 30 Jun 2029
  • 1 site in 1 country
  • Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them

Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.

Who cannot take part

Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.

Prior treatment

  • Residual symptoms related to prior COVID-19 infection

Other illness

  • Active COVID-19 infection
  • HIV infection
  • Hepatitis B or C infection
  • Pulmonary arterial hypertension
  • Sickle cell disease
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Unable to attend postpartum visits
    • Controls
    • 1\. Enrolling controls who meet the same inclusion/exclusion criteria, except they do not have preeclampsia and do not have pre-existing diabetes or chronic hypertension.

Age

  • Age \<18 years old

Other

  • Unable to provide informed consent
  • Does not speak English
  • Pulmonary embolism
  • Pre-existing cardiomyopathy
  • Active substance abuse (other than tobacco or marijuana)

Who the study is looking for

  • Women age \> 18 years
  • Give birth at VUMC
  • Have a diagnosis of PreE based on accepted American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists criteria

Age in the registry: 18 years to - · Sex: Female · Accepts healthy volunteers

Full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov

Sites (1)

Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.

SiteCityCountrySite status
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status
NashvilleUnited StatesRecruiting

This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.