Peripartum cardiomyopathy: current management and future perspectives.

ABSTRACT: Pregnancy is associated with marked physiological changes challenging the cardiovascular system. Among the more severe pregnancy associated cardiovascular complications, peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a potentially life-threatening heart disease emerging towards the end of pregnancy or in the first postpartal months in previously healthy women. A major challenge is to distinguish the peripartum discomforts in healthy women (fatigue, shortness of breath, and oedema) from the pathological symptoms of PPCM. Moreover, pregnancy-related pathologies such as preeclampsia, myocarditis, or underlying genetic disease show overlapping symptoms with PPCM. Difficulties in diagnosis and the discrimination from other pathological conditions in pregnancy may explain why PPCM is still underestimated.

SUBMITTER: Hilfiker-Kleiner D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4422973 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature