Pregnancy and the cardiovascular system

Pregnancy-related cardiovascular deaths in California: beyond peripartum cardiomyopathy

“…25 This overlap may explain why the index of suspicion for CVD was not sufficiently high to pursue appropriate diagnosis and initiate treatment even though the majority of women in our study had signs and symptoms recorded by healthcare providers in late pregnancy or postpartum. Further, our study found that 30% of women died more than 42 days after delivery which suggests that women at risk for CVD should have access to health care beyond the M A N U S C R I P T…”

Preeclampsia and Maternal Cardiovascular Disease: Consequence or Predisposition?

“…Primarily driven by placental signals (e.g. hormones and growth factors), gestational cardiovascular adaptations include plasma volume expansion, peripheral vasodilation, increased cardiac output, cardiac and vascular remodeling and altered hemodynamics [5,6,7,8]. …”

Pregnancy and delivery in patient after Fontan's operation due to common ventricle of left ventricular morphology

“…Hemodynamic changes observed during pregnancyincreased heart rate, stroke volume and cardiac output with parallel reduction of vascular resistance are particularly disadvantageous in women after Fontan's operation, due to their significant dependence on venous return and limited capability to increase the stroke volume [2,3]. Driscol et al reported seven pregnancies, among them only one resulted in healthy infant delivery [4].…”