Cardiac Drugs in Pregnancy

Abstract

Heart disease complicating pregnancy is an indirect cause of maternal mortality and its incidence in India is 1 to 4%. Cardiac disease in pregnant women is most commonly due to rheumatic heart disease (RHD), congestive heart failure, and less commonly due to ischemic heart disease or cardiomyopathy. Though the frequency of RHD has decreased worldwide, it is still predominant in developing countries such as India. Around 15 to 52% of cardiac abnormalities first diagnosed during routine antenatal checkups or due to the signs and symptoms caused by physiologic changes of pregnancy. The most common clinical features of cardiac lesions such as breathlessness, pedal edema, and murmurs that mimic normal physiologic changes in pregnancy pose a diagnostic difficulty for obstetricians.