Yes, there is definitely a correlation between preeclampsia – high blood pressure and protein in the urine during pregnancy – and cardiovascular problems in later life. But it’s not clear whether preeclampsia itself is the culprit or whether women who get preeclampsia were already at risk of future cardiovascular problems before they got pregnant, said Dr. Richard J. Levine, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health.