This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing shed light on pregnancy outcome in women with congenital heart disease
Lui G. Circulation. 2011;123:242-248.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Peak heart rate and chronotropic index were among the variables detected by cardiopulmonary exercise testing in women with congenital heart disease that predicted neonatal adverse events, new data indicated.
The multicenter, observational, retrospective study included women with congenital heart disease who had undergone cardiopulmonary exercise testing within 2 years of pregnancy or during the first trimester.
Overall, 89 pregnancies from 83 women were analyzed. At least one adverse cardiac event resulted during the pregnancy of 18% of the women, which were primarily due to congenital heart disease (14%) and sustained symptomatic arrhythmia (7%).
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing variables associated with a cardiac event included peak heart rate (OR=0.71; 95% CI, 0.53-0.94), chronotropic index (OR=0.65; 95% CI, 0.47-0.90) and percentage of maximum age predicted heart rate (OR=0.93; 95% CI, 0.88-0.98). Neonatal events occurred in 20% of pregnancies, with the following variables correlating with an event: peak heart rate (OR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.58-0.98), heart rate reserve (OR=0.80; 95% CI, 0.64-0.99), chronotropic index (OR=0.73; 95% CI, 0.54-0.98) and percentage of maximum age predicted heart rate (OR=0.94; 95% CI, 0.89-0.99).
In the clinical perspective of the study, the researchers wrote of their findings, “Stress testing with measures of chronotropic response is a promising tool for the practicing clinician that, when considered in the context of other clinical and hemodynamic factors, may further improve risk stratification of women with congenital heart disease who are considering pregnancy.”
 |
Follow CardiologyToday.com on Twitter. |