Research Questions: Pregnancy is a significant physiological event in women’s life course, though its influence on maternal long-term cardiovascular health is still not entirely clear. The aim of this study is to explore how pregnancy-related conditions (i.e. childbearing history & adverse pregnancy outcomes, CBH & APO) affect maternal long-term cardiovascular imaging phenotypes (heart MRI & carotid ultrasound), and to further analyze the roles of multi-omics factors such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and exposomics in this case.
Objectives: 1. Reveal the effect of CBH (e.g. whether to give birth, parity, delivery method) and APO (e.g. miscarriage, preterm birth) on maternal long-term cardiovascular imaging phenotypes and their potential causal relationships. 2. Identify omics profiles that increase women’s susceptibility to CVD and investigate mediating roles of multi-omics factors in the above pathway. 3. Verify the strength and specificity of the correlation between the selected cardiovascular imaging phenotypes and various CVD. 4. Establish a CVD risk prediction model specifically for parous women, incorporating pregnancy-related conditions, cardiovascular imaging phenotypes, genetic and omics data to identify female individuals at higher risk of CVD.
Scientific Rationale: During pregnancy, a woman’s body undergoes complicated physiological changes that can have a profound impact on long-term cardiovascular health. Previous studies have shown that APOs are associated with increasing risk of women’s long-term CVD, but specific mechanism remains unclear. In recent years, the rapid development of imaging techniques and multi-omics research methods has provided new opportunities for in-depth exploration of this issue. It is expected to unravel the complex relationship between pregnancy-related conditions and maternal long-term cardiovascular imaging phenotypes, and provide novel perspectives and strategies for the assessment and prevention of women’s CVD.
