Objective: To identify risk factors for life-threatening maternal outcomes.Study Design: Hospital charts were reviewed for cases of maternal mortality or near-miss and for controls overmatched 1:3. Significant risk factors were identified through simple and best subsets multiple logistic regression.Result: Eight cases of mortality and 69 near-miss cases were found. Significant risk factors with their odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals are: age 35 to 39 years (2.3, 1.2 to 4.4) and >39 years (5.1, 1.8 to 14.4); African-American race (7.4, 2.5 to 22.0) and Hispanic ethnicity (4.2, 1.3 to 13.2); chronic medical condition (2.7, 1.5 to 4.8); obesity (3.0, 1.7 to 5.3); prior cesarean (5.2, 2.8 to 9.8) and gravidity (1.2, 1.1 to 1.5 per pregnancy). In multivariable logistic regression, race remained significant while controlling for other significant factors and markers of socioeconomic status.Conclusion: Some risk factors can be modified through medical care, education or social support systems. Racial disparity in outcome is confirmed and is unexplained by traditional risk factors.
Continuous electrocardiography during the first 24 hours of a stay in a coronary care unit was used to record ventricular arrhythmias during treatment with alte-
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.