Thrombotic occlusion of the Bjoerk-Shiley prosthetic heart valve in a pregnant woman. A case report.

Abstract

In this report, we describe a case of thrombosed valve in early postpartal period. The patient was a 35-year-old woman who received an operation of aortic valve replacement (Bjork-Shiley valve) for her rheumatic heart disease 13 years ago. Since then she was constantly on oral anticoagulants. Two years ago she intentionally stopped to take oral warfarin because of her wish to have a baby. She became pregnant early 1985, since then low-dose heparin injection combined with oral dipyridamole had begun. On Oct. 3, 1985 she gave a birth to a 3,080 g baby. But on the 8th postpartal day, she began to complain of increasing dyspnea. Her chest X-ray film showed remarkable pulmonary congestion. She died on 12th day following the delivery due to heart failure. The postmortem examination revealed a thrombosed Bj ork-Shiley valve with very limited leaflet motion.