RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pregnancy complicated by heart disease in Nepal
JF Heart Asia
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, British Cardiovascular Society and Asia Pacific Heart Association
SP 26
OP 29
DO 10.1136/heartasia-2013-010396
VO 6
IS 1
A1 Shailaja Chhetri
A1 Nikesh Raj Shrestha
A1 Thomas Pilgrim
YR 2014
UL http://heartasia.bmj.com/content/6/1/26.abstract
AB Objective To investigate the prevalence, characteristics and maternal and perinatal outcomes of pregnancies complicated by heart disease. Design Prospective single-centre registry. Setting Tertiary care teaching hospital in eastern Nepal. Patients Pregnant women presenting to the antenatal clinic and/or labour room between 1 March 2012 and 31 March 2013. Main outcome measures Prevalence, characteristics, and maternal and perinatal outcomes of pregnancies complicated by heart disease. Results Fifty-three out of 9463 pregnancies (0.6%) were complicated by cardiac disease. Proportions of acquired, congenital and arrhythmic heart disease amounted to 89%, 9% and 2%, respectively. Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was the most frequent cardiac disease complicating pregnancy (n=47). Among 45 women with RHD continuing pregnancy until delivery, 30 (67%) were primigravidae. The predominant valvular pathology was mitral stenosis (62%), followed by mitral regurgitation (21%) and aortic regurgitation (13%). Twenty women (44%) underwent elective or emergency caesarean section. Maternal and fetal/perinatal mortality of pregnancies complicated by RHD amounted to 4% and 16%, respectively. New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III or class IV (HR 6.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 29.1, p=0.026), pulmonary hypertension (HR 9.1, 95% CI 1.6 to 51.5, p=0.012) and severe mitral stenosis (HR 7.0, 95% CI 1.4 to 34.4, p=0.017) were identified as predictors of maternal or fetal/perinatal mortality in an univariate analysis. Conclusions Rheumatic mitral stenosis was the most frequent heart disease complicating pregnancy in a consecutive cohort from a teaching hospital in Nepal. Exercise intolerance, pulmonary hypertension and severe mitral stenosis were identified as predictors of maternal or fetal/perinatal mortality.