BIHS Lecture: Jamie Kitt
| Thursday, December 11, 2025 |
| 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
| Hall C Lower Section |
Details
Introduction:
The Post-Partum Hypertension Trial (POP-HT1) demonstrated that improved blood pressure control in the pueperium, following hypertensive pregnancy, results in persistently lower blood pressure2, beneficial cardiovascular and cerebrovascular remodelling2-5 volumes ~9 months later.
Methods:
POP-HT was a prospective, randomized, blinded outcome trial run in a single UK centre between March 2020 and December 2022.1 Participants were randomized to either remote telemonitored blood pressure self-management to keep BP <140/90 vs standard NHS care post-partum. Detailed multi-organ phenotyping was performed including; echocardiography at baseline and ~9-months; cardiovascular magnetic resonance at ~9 months, aortic stiffness at baseline and ~9-months (Vicorder® oscillometric device6-8 & aortic distensibility at ~9-months using MRI. Brain and renal volumes were also assessed at 9 months using MRI (3T Siemens PRISMA®).
Results:
There were no significant baseline differences in demographic, medical or anthropometric measures or in the baseline organ phenotyping measures described above . By ~9-months postpartum systolic and diastolic blood pressure were ~ 6mmHg lower (diastolic between-group difference was -5.80 mm Hg (95% CI, -7.40 to -4.20; P < .001) and systolic was -6.51 mm Hg (95% CI, -8.80 to -4.22; P < .001). There was also beneficial cardiac, vascular, and brain remodelling3-5. Renal structure wasn’t influenced by blood pressure
Conclusions:
Short-term postnatal optimisation of blood pressure control after hypertensive pregnancy, through self-monitoring and physician-guided antihypertensive titration, associates with long-term changes in blood pressure, and beneficial changes in cardiovascular & cerebrovascular structure and function, in patterns associated with more favourable long-term outcomes9-10.
Disclosures:
Dr Jamie Kitt was funded by a BHF CRT-F during the POP-HT trial.
Speaker
Dr Jamie Kitt
Cardiology & General Internal Medicine (GIM) Consultant
Oxford & Thames Valley
Hypertensive pregnancy: a truly multi-organ disorder…can the postpartum period offers a window to modulate lifetime risks of end organ damage?
Biography
Dr Jamie Kitt is a dual accredited Cardiology & General Internal Medicine (GIM) Consultant trained in Oxford & Thames Valley, United Kingdom. He has sub-specialty training in Echo, Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), Cardiac CT, and Hypertension, the latter of which complements his research expertise within hypertensive pregnancy. He now works as an imaging cardiologist in London for the NHS and continues his post-doctoral research in Oxford in Hypertensive Pregnancy.
He completed a PhD studying the cardiac complications of hypertensive pregnancy between 2018-2022. Under the supervision of Prof Paul Leeson, he was awarded a British Heart Foundation fellowship during which they performed a randomized trial on post-partum self-management of hypertensive pregnancy (POP-HT). This resulted in several high-impact publications in the field of hypertensive pregnancy, with the key POP-HT trial papers published in JAMA, Hypertension and Circulation to coincide with the trial’s presentation at American Heart Association’s late breaking Science in November 2023. He was awarded the early career research award of the British and Irish Hypertension Society in Autumn 2024 and the University of Oxford Graduate Prize Award in March 2025 for this body of work. The vascular paper is pending publication in Hypertension and the brain and renal outcomes from are under peer review. Prof Leeson and Dr Kitt are now collaborating in a multi-center PCORI funded trial of postpartum BP self-management in the USA, the multi-center validation of POP-HT in the UK (SNAP2), and help run dedicated postpartum hypertension clinics in Oxford and London. Dr Kitt looks forward to sharing this body of work at the Australian Hypertension society in late 2025 and working with Prof Larry Chamley to adapt the principles developed in POP-HT to the New Zealand model of postpartum care during a visiting lectureship in December 2025.
Chair
Isabella Tan
The George Institute For Global Health
Ross Tsuyuki
Professor Of Medicine (cardiology)
University of Alberta
