[Peripartum cardiomyopathy: a rare clinical condition]

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PC)is a heart failure associated with pregnancy, which has the following criteria to establish its clinical diagnosis: 1 - this pathology in the last month of pregnancy or in the first five months postpartum. 2 - No etiology determinant of heart failure. 3- Absence of demonstrable heart disease before the last month of pregnancy. 4 - Deterioration of the left ventricular systolic function demonstrated by Eco cardiography. Patients and methods. Descriptive, simple cross and retrospective. We reviewed all the clinical records of pregnant women and mothers who were admitted for hospitalization in intensive care services diagnosed with congestive heart failure between February 1999 and February 2007

The number of patients with heart failure were 23, 7 of them were diagnosed of PC, 5 pregnant mothers and 2 puerperal women. The PC patients age was between 20 and 37 years, with an average of 31 years. The average of ejection fraction evaluated by an echo cardiograph was 32.8%, 4 women with < 30% and 3 with > 30%. The route of termination of pregnancy was not influenced by the disease, and only for obstetric indications, 5 by caesarean section and 2 by vaginal births. All the newborn were with appropriate weights to gestational age, with Apgar scorer normal. There were no maternal deaths, or neonatal fetus. The incidence of pathology turns out to be 1/7500 born live.