Peripartum cardiomyopathy – Rare, unknown and life-threatening

Peripartum cardiomyopathy: a review of literature on clinical status and meta-analysis of diagnosis and clinical management

“…The seminal reference to PPCM in medical literature, described as idiopathic myocardial failure with onset of symptoms in early puerperium, was in 1849 by Ritchie in the article, "Clinical contributions to the pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of certain chronic diseases of the heart" [4]. Later in 1880, Virchow and Porak also described an association between heart failure and early puerperium in the absence of determinable cardiac disease [5]. However, formal recognition of PPCM as a distinct clinical entity was in 1937, when Gouley, et al [6], and Hull and Hafkesbring [7] described an idiopathic origin of postpartal toxic heart disease in previously healthy women.…”