Echocardiographic features of peripartum cardiac failure: the Zaria syndrome

Zaria has the highest incidence of peripartum cardiac failure, a syndrome of unsettled aetiology. Over the years it has been noted that there has been a decrease in the period of treatment by traditional methods from an average of 90 days to 30 days and with a complete avoidance of hot bed treatment. Twenty-one subjects with the syndrome were studied: they exhibited the same clinical findings as evinced in previous reports from our centre. Echocardiography findings of dilated heart with depressed left ventricular function were noted. There was a statistically significant relationship between the duration of practice and ejection fraction (EF), r=0.36 and P<0.05, duration of practice and left ventricular internal diameter in diastole (LVIDd), r=0.28, P<0.05. Were these subjects suffering from a quiescent heart muscle disease from a previous viral myocarditis and did they require an expanded volume as a trigger? Or are they intolerant of salt requiring only a small increase from the traditional method of treatment to precipitate cardiac failure? Further investigation in the field of molecular biology is required.