Abstract
Over the last decades pregnancy related mortality has been increased. Approximately 1-4% of the pregnancies can be complicated by cardiovascular diseases. Approximately 10-25% of the maternal deaths were due to maternal cardiac complications. At present, advancements in health care services allowed the health care professionals to detect the cardiovascular complications in pregnant. Initial discovery of cardiac disease can be achieved by complete assessment of the patient throughout the pregnancy period. The present study was a retrospective cross-sectional study, conducted at Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences and Research foundation (KIMS&RF), Amalapuram, Andhra Pradesh, India. This study was carried out for a period of six months which was previously approved by the institutional ethics committee. Past six years Case records of Obstetrics and Gynaecology department were subjected for screening from the medical records section. Patients were categorized based on the New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification. In this study, a total of 12,719 pregnant cases were screened to detect the cardiac complications in pregnancy. Among these cases, 50 cases were observed with cardiac diseases and the prevalence of cardiac diseases among the pregnant women was found to be 0.39%. Majority of the cases were found to be between the ages of 21-25 years. In our study, mean age was found to be 26 years. Rheumatic heart disease is the most common cardiac complication observed. About 32 % of cases were associated with obstetric disorders. Cardiologist and gynecologist should be aware of the cardiovascular complications during pregnancy. It is very important to counsel the patients prior to the pregnancy regarding the potential complications associated with maternal cardiovascular diseases. A female patient with known cardiac disease should consult a physician before becoming pregnant. A team work should be very much essential to carry out the management that includes obstetrician, cardiologist and anesthesiologist. In our study, no pregnant was dead due to their cardiac complication during their pregnancy. Mortality due to cardiac disease can be prevented is largely dependent on timely interference. Despite low maternal and neonatal mortality, pregnancy in women with cardiac disease is associated with significant cardiac and neonatal morbidity. Hence, it is the responsibility of all the health care professionals to involve completely for providing an effective patient care for the pregnant women with cardiac disease.
