What's the likelihood of a complicated pregnancy (next time) in a patient with a history of peripartum cardiomyopathy now with recovered LV function?
Every once in a while, I find a paper that answers the exact question I'm asking, and today is one of those days. Check out this recent JACC article: a single center retrospective study looking at women with peripartum cardiomyopathy with recovered versus non-recovered EF and their outcomes in subsequent pregnancies. My two big take-homes are that (unsurprisingly) women with non-recovered EFs have higher rates of adverse events and that (surprisingly) women with recovered EFs may see some decline in LV function with time. Here's the Central Illustration:
Central Illustration. Long-Term Outcomes of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy With Subsequent Pregnancies
Most of the bad outcomes were related to heart failure (LV dysfunction and/or symptoms). Here's the table:
Table 2. The Maternal Outcomes of SSPs
Still some unknowns in terms of predictions, but, I do believe this is helpful information to reference in counseling patients with a history of peripartum cardiomyopathy, especially given the external validity to Grady.
Pachariyanon P, Bogabathina H, Jaisingh K, Modi M, Modi K. Long-Term Outcomes of Women With Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Having Subsequent Pregnancies. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2023;82(1):16-26. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.04.043
