prospective echocardiographic study of peripartum cardiomyopathy

ABSTRACT

In this work, nine women diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy were prospectively recruited for a longitudinal echocardiographic study. Severe myocardial dysfunction was defined as left ventricular end- diastolic dimension 60 mm or more plus fractional shortening 21% or less and mild dysfunction was defined as left ventricular end- diastolic dimension <60 mm plus fractional shortening 22% to 24%. Unpaired t tests were used to compare the sample means and Fisher exact test used to compare discrete variables. The results indicated that all women were seen initially for pulmonary edema. Echocardiography showed decreased systolic function in all women. All, but one woman had a diagnosis of either chronic hypertension or preeclampsia. Four women were first seen antepartum and five postpartum [range from one day to two months]. A repeated echocardiography was performed in all women [median eight months, range six weeks to two years]. There was no correlation between antepartum or postpartum presentation and cardiovascular status on the follow-up period