[Preeclampsia and peripartum cardiomyopathy: infrequent association]

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare form of congestive heart failure that affects women late in pregnancy or in the early puerperium. PPCM is a disorder of unknown etiology that can have potentially devastating consequences. Although the etiology of PPCM remains unclear, a number of risk factors for this disorder have been proposed. However, the disease can occurred in women without these risk factors. Preeclampsia is associated with PPCM. However, cardiomyopathy is an infrequent complication of preeclampsia. Treatment of PPCM is similar to that other types of congestive heart failure. The pregnancy outcome is uncertain. Probably it depends on whether ther heart size returns to normal. We present the case of a 38 years old woman, who developed in an 33rd week of gestation a PPCM. She had some risk factors (include preeclampsia) but had a favorable evolution with conventional treatment. The rarity of the syndrome, its potential consequences, and the probable association with preeclampsia, stimulated us to present this case.