Detecting peripartum cardiomyopathy
Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a complication that can affect women in the final stages of pregnancy and up to six months after birth. This heart disease is very rare, affecting one pregnant woman or young mother in 3,500 in our country. The disease is much more common in Africa and reaches record levels in Haiti where it affects one in 300 women. What is at issue is a fragment of prolactin, an hormone involved in the growth of mammary glands and the stimulation of milk production. Heart disease associated with pregnancyThese “happy” signs of pregnancy are regarded as pleasant most probably because they are quite normal and show that the baby is developing normally. However, doctors need to be very thorough but also capable of detecting whether one or other of these symptoms is exacerbated and could possibly lead to complications later on. Peripartum cardiomyopathy is difficult to identify and is a complication that can appear in a woman at the end of pregnancy and up to six months after the birth of the child. This type of heart disease is very infrequent but not so infrequent that it can be classed as a “rare disease” (one case in 5,000), affecting one pregnant woman/young mother in 3,500 in our country. However, it is much more common in Africa and reaches record levels in Haiti where it affects one in three hundred women. |
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