Why the study?
Data on heart disease in pregnancy are generally scarce, despite studies showing higher prevalence and worse outcomes in Northern Nigeria.
This review highlights the higher prevalence and worse clinical outcomes of heart disease in pregnancy in Northern Nigeria, identifying gaps for future multicenter studies.
May warrant region-specific vigilance in northern Nigeria; leaves open etiology and management strategies for multicenter studies.
Physiological changes of pregnancy exert stress on the heart that could lead to cardiac decompensation, especially in the presence of background diseases such as cardiomyopathy, hypertension, valvular, or congenital heart diseases. Heart disease in pregnancy is an important contributor to maternal and fetal adverse outcomes. Although data on heart disease in pregnancy are generally scarce, a few available studies have shown higher prevalence in northern than southern regions of Nigeria. In addition, clinical outcomes among pregnant women diagnosed with heart disease are worse than among those without and apparently healthy women. The aim of this review was to describe the pattern and outcomes of heart disease in pregnancy in Northern Nigeria and to identify the existing gaps in knowledge, which can be explored in a subsequent multicenter national study.
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Shehu et al. (2023) studied this question.
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