This case highlights the clinical presentation of postpartum cardiomyopathy in a patient presenting with exertional dyspnea several months after delivery.
May warrant evaluation for postpartum cardiomyopathy in delayed postpartum dyspnea; hypothesis-generating for ethnic-specific risks and screening.
A 33-year-old African American female presented to the emergency department for evaluation of worsening dyspnea with a nonproductive cough over the past several days. She had been in her normal state of health prior, and denied any pain, fevers, chills, hemoptysis, nausea, vomiting, lower extremity edema, orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, or weight gain. The dyspnea was exertional in nature, without a pleuritic component. She denied recent travel or hospitalizations, except for a short hospital stay for pre-eclampsia four months prior for which she had a cesarean section at 36 weeks gestation. The patient reported a benign postpartum course, and admitted compliance with her only medication, labetalol. Other pertinent medical history includes a stillbirth at 26-months gestation several years ago. She denied a personal or family history of venous thromboembolic disease, coronary artery disease, heart failure, diabetes, or malignancy. She denied tobacco, alcohol, or illicit drug use.
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AB et al. (2016) studied this question.
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