PERIPARTUM CARDIOMYOPATHY COMPLICATING SEVERE AORTIC-STENOSIS

A 30-year-old woman presented with cardiac failure caused by severe ao rtic stenosis and biopsy proven myocarditis 4 weeks after an uneventfu l pregnancy. The course of the myocarditis was followed and predicted by serial endomyocardial biopsies. Our experience suggests that peripa rtum cardiomyopathy should never be ignored as a cause of cardiac dise ase in the puerperium even when there is another, more obvious, pathol ogy and we report the efficacy of serial transvenous cardiac biopsies in timing aortic valve replacement in this patient.