The course of 127 pregnant women with cardiac disease admitted and treated at St. Mary´s Hospital during the period 1964 through 1971 has been studied.
Among 127 cases, 46 cases were delivered or treated during pregnancy at St. Mary´s Hospital and 81 cases were admitted after delivery elsewhere.
During 8 years of the obstetric service at St. Mary´s Hospital, there were 46 patients with heart disease (0. 3%) in 15, 182 deliveries(Table I).
The most common form of heart disease encountered in pregnancy was rheumatic heart disease, which accounts for 61.42% of all the cases.
The remainder consisted of myocardiopathy 14.96%, postpartum heart disease 14. 17%, hypertensive heart disease 4.72%, and others 4.73%/(Table II).
In 83 of 127 patients, congestive heart failure developed during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. The incidence of heart failure in all patients with heart disease was 65.35% (Table II).
Complication occurred in 59 of 127 cases (46.4%), which consisted of toxemia, anemia, infection, and atrial fibrillation.
The most common form of complication encountered in pregnant patient with heart disease was toxemia(29. 1%) (Table XII). In our report on 127 pregnant cardiac patient among whom there was a mortality of 6.61°x, all death was due to congestive heart failure.
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