Abstract Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare cause of heart failure in which left ventricular systolic dysfunction and symptoms of heart failure occur in young women in the last month of pregnancy or in the first months after delivery. Therapeutic management is similar to other forms of heart failure with low …
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Abstract Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare cause of heart failure in which left ventricular systolic dysfunction and symptoms of heart failure occur in young women in the last month of pregnancy or in the first months after delivery. Therapeutic management is similar to other forms of heart failure with low ejection fraction, and under optimal drug treatment most women will recover their left ventricular systolic function. A low percentage of patients will require the implantation of a cardiac resynchronization device or a left ventricular mechanical assistance device to improve systolic function. We will present the case of a 38-year-old patient, with multiple pregnancy, diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy in the last month of pregnancy, being characterized by severe impairment of systolic function of the left ventricle with an ejection fraction of 26% and left ventricular desynchrony secondary to the left bundle branch block. Under optimal medical therapy over 1 year no improvement in left ventricular systolic function was observed, so the patient was eligible for implantation of the cardiac resynchronization device. At six months of implantation of the device, normalization of the systolic function of the left ventricle was observed. Cardiac resynchronization therapy provides improvement in left ventricular systolic function in patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy in whom medical therapy has been ineffective
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