Grant: Operating Grant: Data Analysis Using Existing CDN Databases and Cohorts

One in five pregnancies lead to babies' health complications, like stillbirth, low birth weight, and being born too early (preterm). Each year, about 15 million babies around the world are born preterm, including 8% of babies in Canada. Even though we have made medical advances, the rates of preterm birth and baby complications have not changed much in the last 10 years. These issues can cause serious short- and long-term health problems for babies and create social, emotional, and financial difficulties for families and society. There is a huge clinical need to find better ways to predict and prevent these problems and reduce their impact. Most baby health problems are linked to issues in pregnancy, such as poor blood vessel health in the mother. Poor blood vessel health has recently been connected to conditions like preeclampsia, a serious high blood pressure disorder of pregnancy. One way to check blood vessel health is by measuring the hardening of the arteries. This quick, painless test can be done during a doctor's visit and shows how flexible or stiff the arteries are. Stiff arteries can be a sign of health risks, including pregnancy complications. Our past studies have shown that checking arterial hardening in early pregnancy can predict preeclampsia better than other tests, like blood tests or ultrasounds. These results led us to ask: can arterial hardening also predict health problems in babies? Our study aims to track arterial hardening throughout pregnancy to see if it can help predict these baby health problems, using data from our multinational study of 1500 high-risk pregnancies. With this research, we hope to find ways to identify risks early, so doctors can help keep babies healthier as they begin their lives. If we can demonstrate that arterial hardening is a useful tool, it could become part of routine care for high-risk pregnancies, helping improve outcomes and reduce baby complications.