Rosalinda, did you see a heart specialist? I need to do that as well. I have weird palpaltations..I asked my normal doc about it, but he said if we can't catch the palpaltations on a device (because they are sporadic) that nothing could be done.

I'm glad you are being proactive..that's really important.

Sorry don't know risks of "mild" atherosclerosis, but I do know that even sub-clinical hypothyroidism has been linked to high cholesterol & increased prevalance of artherosclerosis. One small uncontrolled analysis found normalization of TSH levels on thyroid hormone replacement halted progression of atherosclerosis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9117915/

*** bump ****

I'm a scientist not a medic but this is my research area.

The thing is probably all of us (pre-eclampsia or not) have mild plaque build up in our arteries from childhood / early adulthood. So this might be "normal" (even if not ideal). You should be asking your cardiologist whether yours is more than he/she would expect at your age. This is basically becase cardiovascular disease develops gradually over the whole life course (even though most people don't get symptoms till later in life. The only thing different with you is that you are very aware of this risk and have gone out of your way to look for it!

Of course, you are statistically at high risk because of your BP and obstetric history so being vigilent with diet & exercise and considering drugs at an earlier age than most does make sense. But because you are young you are probably not that high risk yet ... personally I won't take the drugs just yet and I am 41 (they do have side effects).

Best wishes

I haven't asked for the same procedure you did, but I will certainly check in with my doc about it. It's good you're being proactive about your own health. Other than saying yes to your statin request, did the doc say anything else- how worried was s/he? I can't remember your age but you seemed fairly young to me (which means anyone younger than me; i'm 40).

Im not sure about cardiovascular disease but I developed a-fib with my first pregnancy right around the same time pre-e hit. She was diagnosed with IUGR, all my symptoms went away except for the tachycardia afer delivery and it never went away. I had to have a cardiac ablasion last December that I was told would ony have a 5% chance of not fixing the problem and it was unsuccessful, I still have the tachycardia but I cant have any more ablations b/c the cardiologist burned so much he told me theres basically not anything left to burn without having to put in a pacemaker.

Hi everyone,

I haven't responded to much in the past year, I still like to read the posts and see what is new.

I went in to have an ultrasound scan of my carotid arteries yesterday because I am worried about dying of a heart attack (I already have the high BP), and I have also been reading about reversing cardiovascular disease with a plant-based diet; thankfully I have a wonderful doctor who is willing to go along with my requests. I had an EKG/Stress test done two months ago that came back normal.

So anyway, my cholesterol has pretty much always been within the "normal" range, but now it turns out that I have "mild atherosclerotic buildup" in my carotid arteries (the ones in my neck), which could also mean that I have plaque buildup in other arteries in my body & heart. My doctor is now going to put me on a statin, per my request.

I'm trying to figure out what "mild" means....any ideas? Does anyone else have a similar experience? I am looking for thoughts, and a place to vent.

Caryn, your non-medical expertise would be appreciated.