Acute heart failure in a 35 weeks pregnancy: A Case Report

Abstract

We present the case of a 18- year- old patient, primigravida primiparous at 35 weeks pregnancy who presented at the hospital with acute heart failure without having any history of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it becomes quite difficult to establish the etiology of heart failure in this case. The echocardiography proved particularly useful in excluding a congenital heart disease and valvular disease and showing severe systolic left heart dysfunction and cardiac dilatation. Taking into account the absence of a recognized cardiac disease before pregnancy and the symptoms’ debut late during pregnancy, the peripartum cardiomyopathy diagnosis was established. The patient was addressed to the intensive coronary care unit receiving adequate treatment and on the third day after hospital admission she gave birth by cesarean section to a live female fetus, weighing 1710 g and receiving an Apgar score of 8/9. Postpartum, clinical and biological evolution was favorable, but the left ventricle systolic disfunction persisted. In this particular case, the left ventricular ejection fraction did not return to its normal value 6 months after birth which implies a high mortality risk when a future pregnancy occurs.