Pregnancy complicated by maternal cardiac disease

Forty pregnancies complicated by maternal cardiac disease were reviewed. Thirty-eight per cent were of congenital origin and sixty-two per cent rheumatic valvular. No therapeutic abortions were performed. No pregnancy was complicated by bacterial endocarditis, and there were neither perinatal nor maternal mortalities. Cardiac failure (17% ) occurred only with mitral stenosis, specially when associated with other valvular lesions. Obstetrical complications were minimal, and the spontaneous abortation rate (12.5% ) was not higher than for non-cardiac parturients. General anaesthesia was used for all Caesarian Sections (26.5% ) with no adverse outcome. This study reflects the remarkable good maternal and foetal prognosis in pregnancies complicated by cardiac disease

Genital tract malignancies in Trinidad

In Trinidad, genital tract malignancy is the leading cause of death and the commonest of all female cancers, constituting 38.9 per cent of all malignant neoplasms. This clinico-pathological study comprised 82 patients who were diagnosed as having a genital organ malignancy at the Mount Hope Womens Hospital, during a five-year period between November, 1981 and Octuber, 1986. The malignancies were categorized by site and broad-type, baed on the SixthInternational Classification of Disseases. Carcinoma of the cervix was the commonest malignancy (62.2) after the age of 25. It was 3.2 times more frequemt than corpus uteri cancer, and the mean age at presentation was 54.4 years. Endometrial carcinoma was found only in postmenopausal patients presenting with bleeding at a higher mean age of 63.2 years (0.05>p>.02). Diabetes mellitus, obesity and hypertension were more commonly associated with endometrial carcinoma than with carcinoma of the cervix, but only hypertension significantly so (.01>p>.001. There was no significant difference in the incidence in both major ethinic groups in endometrial and cervical carcinma. However, only one Muslim patient had a genital tract cancer (p < .05). Forty-four per cent of our patients with Stage I cervical carcinoma were in the reproductive age group