Heart condition risky for pregnant women

At the end of her first pregnancy, the woman developed a form of heart failure called peripartum cardiomyopathy — a form of heart failure that can appear in the last month of pregnancy and within five months after the baby is born. Some women recover from it and others continue to battle it.

An elderly relative had a simple — but not so simple — question for the heart experts during Saturday's Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline on heart failure: "Is it safe for her to have another child? They want one."

The answer depends on whether the woman's heart recovered from it, said Amy Whipple, a registered nurse in the heart failure program at LDS Hospital. Whipple and her colleagues, cardiologist Dr. A.G. Kfoury and nurse practitioner Jennifer Connolly, fielded about 25 questions during the monthly hotline.

If she has not recovered, another pregnancy could be devastating, even fatal, the three agreed.

LDS Hospital has launched a database/registry of women who develop the heart condition, in which the heart weakens and no longer pumps adequately. The symptoms are the same as for general heart failure: fatigue, water retention (which often shows up as excess weight gain), shortness of breath. Diagnosis is made with the help of an echocardiogram.

Primary risk factors for heart disease in general include cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.

Anyone interested in contributing to the peripartum cardiomyopathy database can phone Kim Allan at 801-242-0222 or e-mail her at kim.allan@intermountainmail.org or contact Ashli Zeigler, 801-242-5916 or at Ashli.zeigler@intermountainmail.org.

One hotline caller told Connolly she was experiencing soreness and shortness of breath and had been for several months. She was worried enough that she'd made an appointment with a cardiologist but wanted to know if keeping the date is necessary. Connolly told her "absolutely."

Treatment for heart failure ranges from use of medications to heart-assist pumps, defibrillators and pacemakers to heart transplant, Kfoury said.

It also includes a lot of guided self-care, including weighing oneself daily to check for fluid retention, adhering closely to the recommendations on diet — especially reducing salt — medication use and getting adequate exercise.

Kfoury tells his patients to stop adding salt to their foods but said studies have shown that most people simply can't and won't sustain an entirely salt-free diet.

On the second Saturday of each month, the hotline tackles a different health topic.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com