[Meadows syndrome: Pathogeny and therapeutic perspectives]

ABSTRACT

Meadows syndrome or peripartum cardiomyopathy [PPCM], is a rare affection characterized with a heart failure on an apparently primitive, dilated cardiomyopathy [DCM], arising during the last month of the pregnancy or in the six months following the delivery, at women with healthy known heart. The incidence of PPCM seems rare. The literature indicate the infections and the auto-immune origin, but without a formal proof of it. The purpose of the treatment is to reduce the preload, to decrease vascular resistances and to increase myocardic contractility. The measures of secondary prevention require a rigorous contraception. We report a retrospective analysis concerning aetiopathogenesis hypothesis, risk factors and therapeutic modalities of this affection