Pregnant women with Uncorrected Congenital Heart Disease: Heart failure and mortality

Abstract Background Globally, congenital heart disease (CHD) is an important cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in women reaching reproductive stage. There is lack of data from larger cohorts of women with uncorrected CHD. Objectives To study maternal and fetal outcome of women with uncorrected CHD. Methods An analysis of 10-year data from the ESC EORP ROPAC Registry of women with uncorrected CHD. Results Of a total of 5739 pregnancies in 53 countries, 3295 women had CHD, with 1059 uncorrected. Of these, 41.4 % were from emerging countries. There were marked differences in cardiac defects in uncorrected versus corrected CHD with primary shunt lesions (44.7% vs 32.4%), valvular abnormalities (33.5% vs 12.6%) and Tetralogy of Fallot/Pulmonary atresia (0.8% vs 20.3%), p Conclusions We found marked differences in cardiac conditions in pregnant women with uncorrected CHD versus corrected CHD, with a markedly worse outcome, particularly in women with Eisenmenger syndrome and from emerging countries.