Re: Any Info on Pregnancy following a Heart Attack???

Posted By CCF CARDIO MD - MTR on March 24, 1999 at 00:16:00:

In Reply to: Any Info on Pregnancy following a Heart Attack??? posted by Barbara on March 23, 1999 at 12:43:05:






I am trying to get some information on the risks associated with pregnancy
following a heart attack. Here's some background:
I am 34 years old.
2 years ago I was diagnosed as having had a silent heart attack. The only symptom I had was palpitations, which I mentioned to my Internist during a routine exam. An ekg showed abnormal results, and an echo showed a small area of damage. I subsequently had a thallium stress test and a heart catheterization, which showed the damage from a "moderate" heart attack, although I had normal coronary arteries. None of my doctors could give me any reason for the MI, and they couldn't tell me when it happened. I do not smoke, take drugs, drink very rarely and am otherwise healthy, although I could stand to lose 30 lbs. I was told to take a lose-dose aspirin daily (81mg) and thats it. I had a repeat echo a year after diagnosis, which showed no change. Recent ekg's showed PVCs, but my doctor said not to worry about them.
Here's a list of additional tests that have been performed (all negative/normal results) : diabetes, excess iron, HIV, hepatitis, Lyme disease, clotting/coagulation problems, lipoprotein A, anti-phosholipid antibody test, anti-nuclear antibody test. Can you think of anything else I
should have?
I have asked both my Internist as well as a Maternal Fetal specialist about a possible pregnancy, and all I've been told is that they have never seen a patient "like me" (prior MI, no cause found, going thru pregnancy) and thus cannot really advise me. Do you have any statistics for risks?  I am really
afraid of what might happen and I'm afraid if I wait much longer I'll be too
old.  Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated.




Dear Barbara, thank you for your question.  I would have to know more specific information about the contractile function of your left ventricle (which may have been damaged from the silent MI) to assess your risks with pregnancy.  I can't quote you any statistics since there are so few patients like yourself.  I think that it may be advisable for you to have a stress test at this point.  If you pass with flying colors, then your prognosis would be good.  Another issue is whether you had an increased tendency to form blood clots and that contributed to your silent MI.  I mention this because pregnancy can increase risk of blood clots, so you should speak with your cardiologist about this.  Otherwise, I can't give you anymore specific information in this forum.
I hope you find this information useful.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.  Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter.   The Heart
Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.