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.
A study by Ingrid Struman’s team, carried out in collaboration with German and South-African researchers at the University of Liege has revealed a biomarker, a microRNA which makes it possible to distinguish this condition from other cardiac diseases that cause heart failure. The research also explains how the disease develops: the prolactin fragment destroys the blood vessels thereby releasing microRNAs which in turn destroy the cells of the heart muscle.

Pregnancy continues to be a source of fascination for mankind due to the intimate way it is linked to our very existence. A pregnant woman attracts attention wherever she goes, by evoking an image of both the strength and fragility of the female sex and inevitably arouses the curiosity of those around her. Pregnancy is an experience that many women are impatient to experience while others fear the little aches and pains associated with it. Although the event heralded by pregnancy is described as a happy one, the nine months of abdominal swelling neccessary to reach that point are not all sweetness and light.   The so-called “happy” symptoms associated with pregnancy are often not so happy at all: nausea, extreme fatigue, back pain, constipation, heartburn, blood circulation problems and lack of sleep etc. The appearance and intensity of these problems varies from woman to woman or even from one pregnancy to another in the same woman.

Heart disease associated with pregnancy

These “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.