Health & Medicine
Heart Disease May Result in Pregnancy-related Deaths
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Jan 03, 2014 07:40 AM EST
Heart disease is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in California and one third of these can be prevented, claims a new study.
Statistics, according to the California Department of Public Health, state that since the mid 1990s there has been a rise in the rate of maternal deaths in California and the U.S.
"Women who give birth are usually young and in good health," said Afshan B. Hameed, M.D., the study's lead researcher and associate professor of clinical cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine. "So heart disease shouldn't be the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths, but it is."
Between 2002 and 2005 there were nearly 2.1 million live births in California. On analyzing the medical reports of 732 women who died from various causes while pregnant or within less than a year of pregnancy, it was seen that nearly 209 deaths that occurred were pregnancy-related and 52 of these deaths were due to cardiovascular disease and just six were diagnosed with a heart-condition before the pregnancy. Cardiomyopathy was the cause of 32 cardiovascular-related deaths.
African American women, obese and women who indulged in substance abuse were more likely to die of heart complications during pregnancy.
One fourth of the women who died of cardiac causes were diagnosed with high blood pressure during pregnancy.
"Women should attain and maintain proper weight before and during pregnancy, and talk to their doctors if they have personal or family histories of heart disease. And healthcare providers should be referring pregnant women who complain of symptoms consistent with cardiac disease to specialists, especially when these risk factors are present. Women with evidence of substance abuse should receive early referral for treatment," researcher concludes.
The study was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.
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First Posted: Jan 03, 2014 07:40 AM EST
Heart disease is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in California and one third of these can be prevented, claims a new study.
Statistics, according to the California Department of Public Health, state that since the mid 1990s there has been a rise in the rate of maternal deaths in California and the U.S.
"Women who give birth are usually young and in good health," said Afshan B. Hameed, M.D., the study's lead researcher and associate professor of clinical cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine. "So heart disease shouldn't be the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths, but it is."
Between 2002 and 2005 there were nearly 2.1 million live births in California. On analyzing the medical reports of 732 women who died from various causes while pregnant or within less than a year of pregnancy, it was seen that nearly 209 deaths that occurred were pregnancy-related and 52 of these deaths were due to cardiovascular disease and just six were diagnosed with a heart-condition before the pregnancy. Cardiomyopathy was the cause of 32 cardiovascular-related deaths.
African American women, obese and women who indulged in substance abuse were more likely to die of heart complications during pregnancy.
One fourth of the women who died of cardiac causes were diagnosed with high blood pressure during pregnancy.
"Women should attain and maintain proper weight before and during pregnancy, and talk to their doctors if they have personal or family histories of heart disease. And healthcare providers should be referring pregnant women who complain of symptoms consistent with cardiac disease to specialists, especially when these risk factors are present. Women with evidence of substance abuse should receive early referral for treatment," researcher concludes.
The study was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone