NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women whose blood pressure increased while they were pregnant are more likely than other women to develop calcification in their coronary arteries later in life, new research indicates.

"Usually it is assumed that development of high blood pressure during pregnancy has no long-term consequences since it subsides after pregnancy," Dr. Michiel L. Bots, from University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, said in a statement. "Our research and that of others may have important implications for the management of women who have high blood pressure in pregnancy."

The new findings, which appear in the medical journal Hypertension, are based on a study of 491 healthy postmenopausal women who completed a questionnaire regarding the occurrence of high blood pressure in an earlier pregnancy. A specialized type of CT scan was used to measure calcium in their coronary arteries.

Roughly 31 percent of women reported having high blood pressure during pregnancy. The investigators found that this raised the likelihood of finding coronary calcification by 64 percent, compared to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.

Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to determine if interventions aimed at preventing or treating hypertension during pregnancy can affect the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, the researchers conclude.