Thursday, January 10, 2013

Peripartum cardiomyopathy

This topic was nicely reviewed in the Texas Heart Institute Journal and the free full text can be accessed here.

Key points:

Its onset can be in late pregnancy or up to 5 months postpartum.

Diagnosis is by exclusion of other heart disease combined with, in order to avoid overdiagnosis, very specific echocardiographic criteria.

Treatment includes general heart failure therapy (a table in the article summarizes drug precautions during pregnancy and lactation) and disease specific therapies.

Recovery is frequent but not invariable.

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