Reducing the Risk of Chronic Hypertension and Improving Vascular Function Following Preeclampsia

The REPAIR trial is a multicenter randomized controlled trial of 618 postpartum patients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy randomized to intensive blood pressure control versus usual care during the first 6 weeks postpartum. The intervention group will receive intensive blood pressure (BP) control with nifedipine extended-release initiation when BP is ≥ 140/90 mmHg. The active control group will receive usual care with nifedipine ER initiation when BP is ≥ 150/100. The study will take place at two clinical sites: Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and Northwestern University (NU). All participants will undergo BP monitoring, cardiovascular function assessment, and collection of cardiovascular biomarkers at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 months postpartum. Specifically, cardiac function and structure will be assessed with transthoracic echocardiogram, endothelial dysfunction with brachial artery flow-mediated dilation, and arterial stiffness with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. The primary outcome is the incident diagnosis of stage I hypertension at one year postpartum.