Cerebrovascular Diagnoses During First Recorded Pregnancies in a 17-Year Period-A Nationwide Analysis of Healthcare Administrative Records Between 2004 and 2020 in a Central-Eastern European Population.

introductionCerebrovascular disorders are major contributors to maternal morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. In this nationwide study in Hungary, we evaluated the frequency of cerebrovascular diagnoses during first recorded pregnancies in a 17-year period. MATERIAL AND

methodsIn the framework of the NEUROHUN project utilising nationwide administrative healthcare data, we included women with at least one delivery and with at least one cerebrovascular diagnosis during their first pregnancies recorded between 2004 and 2020. To minimise the number of misclassified first pregnancies due to database limitations appearing towards the beginning of the database, trend analyses using linear regression models were restricted to the 2011-2020 period.

resultsDuring first recorded pregnancies in the 17-year study time frame ( DISCUSSION AND

conclusionThe prevalence of most cerebrovascular diagnoses increases significantly with higher maternal age. Allowing for the limitations of our study, we found that in a Central-Eastern European population, the prevalence of cerebrovascular diagnoses during first recorded pregnancies between 2004 and 2020 was 169.4 per 100,000 (0.17%), with TIA being the most common diagnosis in approximately one-third of cases. The rate of cerebral infarctions among cerebrovascular diagnoses was almost twice as high in those over 34 years of age compared to those below 25. The frequency of pregnancy-related ischemic strokes and cerebral haemorrhages in the Central-Eastern European population corresponds to published values.