ResearchObstetricsPoor outcome of indigent patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy in the United States
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
We performed a retrospective analysis of charts of 1677 female patients who presented for treatment of heart failure at the Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Shreveport between January 1992 and December 2003. PPCM was defined using both clinical and echocardiographic criteria as unexplained appearance of heart failure in a previously healthy patient during last month of pregnancy or up to 5 months postpartum, LV ejection fraction (LVEF) below 45% or a reduced LV shortening
Results
Forty-four of 1677 patients reviewed met the diagnostic criteria for PPCM. Statistical summary on demographic and clinical characteristics of all 44 patients is shown in Table 1. The majority of the 44 PPCM patients (88.6%) were African Americans. Their mean age at diagnosis was 25.2 ± 6.9 (range, 14-44) years, mean gravidity 3.0 ± 1.6 (1-8), mean parity 2.5 ± 1.4 (0-6), and mean duration of pregnancy was 36.6 ± 3.8 (22-42) weeks. Sixteen (38.1%) patients had delivery by cesarean section for an
Comment
The results of our study show that over an average follow-up period of 36.8 months, the mortality rate from PPCM was 15.9% and the LV function recovery rate was 35%. Our findings are unlike those of previously reported studies from this country and similar to those reported from Haiti, South Africa, and Brazil.3, 4, 5, 7 Previous studies have also reported that LV function recovery occurred within 6 months of diagnosis in many of the patients. In the present study, the time to recovery of LV
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Cite this article as: Modi KA, Illum S, Jariatul K, et al. Poor outcome of indigent patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy in the United States. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2009;201:171.e1-5.