Pregnancy and Heart Diseases
Cardiovascular disease in women of childbearing age is rising, and pregnancy changes the calculus. What to assess before conception, during pregnancy and at delivery.
Pregnancy and Heart Diseases
Cardiac disease in pregnancy demands anticipation rather than reaction. This archive covers pre-conception risk assessment and counselling, the haemodynamic changes that unmask latent lesions, and management of congenital heart disease, valvular disease, aortopathy, cardiomyopathy and peripartum cardiomyopathy across the trimesters and into the puerperium. Practical themes recur: anticoagulation for mechanical valves, drug safety and the medicines that must stop, arrhythmia management, imaging without ionising radiation, delivery planning and analgesia, and the composition of a functioning cardio-obstetric team. Contraception and future pregnancy advice are included. See our special populations course books and the diagnosis and imaging series.