HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY AND PREGNANCY

The case of a young primiparous woman with defibrillator-assisted fami lial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has led us to review the litera ture on this pathology, which is exceptional because of its scarcity a nd the originality of the problems encountered. To our knowledge, this is the first observation ever reported of defibrillator-assisted acti vation during pregnancy in a woman with HCM. Several questions raised from this particular case, e.g, what are the risks caused by pregnancy in these patients, what is the impact of therapeutics, does the activ ation of an internal defibrillator involve particular risks, what is t he best disposition for delivery and what are the risks for fetuses? W e have tried to ask ail of these questions, using as exhaustive a lite rature review as possible. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.