Maternal mortality and predictors of adverse outcome in patients with heart disease in pregnancy

INTRODUCTION: Heart disease in pregnancy possesses a great haemodynamic challenge and is a known risk for increased maternal morbidity and mortality. The functional status of the patient is one of the most significant parameters which can impact the feto-maternal outcome. Many predictors have been studied and compiled in various scoring systems time and again. The most updated and validated is the modified WHO classification, according to which the presence of pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) and severe ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction <30%) mandates the patient to be under class IV, which along with another important risk factor, i.e., New York heart association (NYHA) class, is revaluated under the present study. The objective of this study is to examine three of the most important predictors of adverse outcomes, i.e., functional status (NYHA class), PAH, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with heart disease in pregnancy. METHODS: It’s a prospective study from January 2016 to August 2017 wherein pregnant patients with heart disease were divided on the basis of NYHA class, PAH, and LVEF, and the feto-maternal outcome was recorded and evaluated in terms of maternal mortality, fetal demise, the occurrence of major cardiac complication, and risk of preterm delivery. RESULTS: A total of three out of 29 (10.34%) maternal deaths were attributed to a cardiac cause. 5.45% of patients with heart disease had maternal mortality, which is in contrast to the 1.12% maternal mortality rate in general at our centre. Three out of 17 (17.64%) patients in NYHA classes 3 and 4 ended in maternal deaths, while there were no mortalities in classes 1 and 2. Intrauterine fetal demise (23.52%), risk of preterm delivery (relative risk = 0.4688; 95% CI: 0.2320 to 0.9470) was significantly higher in patients belonging to NYHA classes 3 and 4 as compared to those in classes 1 and 2. All of the ten (100%) patients who developed cardiac complications belonged to classes 3 and 4. The percentage of abortions (20.00%), intra uterine fetal demise (IUFD) (40.00%), and cardiac complication (80%) in patients with LVEF <44% were significantly more than in patients with better ejection fraction. Pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) ≥ is associated with higher maternal mortality, a greater number of abortions and IUFD (22.62%), cardiac complication (22.72%), and increased risk of preterm birth (0.5769; 95% CI: 0.2801 to 1.188), but these associations are not found to be significant. CONCLUSION: NYHA class was found to be a very strong predictor followed by left ventricular ejection fraction for poor outcome. Maternal mortality in asymptomatic patients or patients with mild symptoms (NYHA classes 1 and 2) is comparable to that found in the general population. However, pulmonary artery systolic pressure is not found to be significantly associated with worse outcomes in our study.