Highlights the critical importance of early diagnosis of cardiac disease in pregnant women presenting with breathlessness to prevent sudden deterioration and potential fatality.
Alerts clinicians to cardiac causes of breathlessness in pregnancy; case series leaves open whether earlier diagnosis improves outcomes.
Heart disease is an important cause of dyspnoea in pregnancy.The diagnosis can easily be missed by the unwary unless it is specifically looked for.Owing to the physiological change and hyperdynamic circulation of pregnancy, patients often deteriorate suddenly and unexpectedly, catching both them and their doctors by surprise.If the diagnosis is not made early this may prove fatal.We describe five cases (over two years) of cardiac disease presenting for the first time during pregnancy.Case reports
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Morley et al. (1995) studied this question.
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