Pregnant again after peripartum cardiomyopathy: to be or not to be?
Abstract
0195-668X/01/100753+04 $35.00/0 was found at the last follow-up at the average of 6 years post subsequent pregnancy in 14% of group 1 patients and 31% of group 2 patients. While no mortality was reported in group 1 patients, 19% of all women in group 2 and 25% of those who did not have an abortion died after the ï¬rst subsequent pregnancy. Among 35 women who had non-aborted subsequent pregnancy, 14 delivered by a caesarean section and 21 had a vaginal delivery. Incidence of unfavourable fetal outcome (Fig. 3) was higher in group 2 patients, with premature delivery in 50% of the women (vs 13% in Group 1) and therapeutic abortion in 25% of the cases (vs 4% in group 1). The results of this study have conï¬rmed ï¬ndings obtained by us several years ago in a previous, preliminary survey[5]. That survey, which relied on questionnaires ï¬lled out by physicians rather than by review of actual patientsâ records, provided data on 67 subsequent pregnancies in 63 women with a history of peripartum cardiomyopathy and revealed similar results. The information obtained by these two investigations clearly demonstrates that subsequent pregnancy in patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy is associated with a signiï¬cant