to evaluate myocardial mass in hypertensive women in the third trimester of pregnancy and six months after delivery.
prospective longitudinal study including 30 pregnant women beyond 35 gestational weeks and with previous SAH diagnosis, monitored at the Obstetrics Unit of the Botucatu School of Medicine – Unesp. They were submitted to clinical and echocardiographic evaluation at two moments, the gestational period and six months postpartum. LVH was defined for the left ventricular mass index as (LVMI) >45 g/m 2,7.
The echocardiographic variables were compared between moments by the non-parametric test of Wilcoxon and simple linear regression models adjusted for each moment of evaluation. Significance level: p < 0.05.
The median age was 29 years, the time of SAH diagnosis varied from 5 to 132 months; the majority of the women were white (83.3%) and 18 (60%) women were treated with antihypertensive medications during pregnancy. At the end of pregnancy, all except two of the women presented HVE. Six months postpartum, only four women did not present HVE. Elevated frequency of obesity and lack of ideal control of pressure levels were observed. There was a significant positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and LVMI at the end of gestation (p = 0.001) and six months after delivery (p = 0.001).
In pregnant hypertensive women, the LVH frequency is elevated at the end of pregnancy, and the recovery frequency of this hypertrophy, at the six-month follow-up after delivery, is very low. These results justify long-term follow-up with a cardiologist since persistent myocardial hypertrophy imposes a diagnosis of stage B cardiac failure, associated with greater risk of evolution to symptomatic ventricular dysfunction and death.