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Pregnancy and Congenital Heart Disease
- Roy M. Pitkin, MD;
- Joseph K. Perloff, MD;
- Brian J. Koos, MD, DPhil; and
- Marie H. Beall, MD
Abstract
Congenital heart disease as a complicating factor in pregnancy has assumed increasing clinical importance because improved techniques of surgical repair have resulted in a larger proportion of affected women living to the reproductive age. The most serious forms are those associated with pulmonary hypertension (such as the Eisenmenger syndrome), which carry a prohibitively high risk of maternal death. Complex forms of cyanotic heart disease, of which the commonest is the tetralogy of Fallot, are only slightly less dangerous. It has recently been recognized that children born to women with congenital heart disease are at increased risk of having cardiac defects; fetal echocardiography is therefore an important diagnostic test. Optimal care of the pregnant woman with congenital heart disease is best provided by a team consisting of internist-cardiologist, obstetrician-perinatologist, obstetric anesthesiologist, and ultrasonographer-echocardiographer.
Article and Author Information
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An edited summary of an Interdepartmental Conference arranged by the Department of Medicine of the UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California. William M. Pardridge, MD, Professor of Medicine, is Director of Conferences.
Authors who wish to cite a section of the conference and specifically indicate its author can use this example as the form of the reference:
Koos BJ. Clinical management of pregnant women with congenital heart disease, pp 448-451. In: Pitkin RM, moderator. Pregnancy and congenital heart disease. Ann Intern Med. 1990;112:445-454.
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Requests for Reprints: Roy M. Pitkin, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1740.
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Current Author Addresses: Drs. Pitkin, Koos, and Beall: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1740.
Dr. Perloff: Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1679.
- ©1990 American College of Physicians
