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Pregnancy in US Transplant Recipients Associated with Significant Risks

Friday, October 20, 2023

Submitted by

Malak Elbatarny

Source

Source Name: JACC

Source URL: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.08.018

Author(s)

Amanda M. Craig, Alexa Campbell, Sarah C. Snow, Toi N. Spates, Sarah A. Goldstein, Anna E. Denoble, Marie-Louise Meng, Jacob N. Schroder, Karen P. Flores, Richa Agarwal, Cary C. Ward, and Jerome J. Federspiel

The authors investigated over 100 cases of pregnancies among heart transplant recipients in the US using a national dataset. Heart transplant mothers had a staggering sixteen-fold adjusted risk of severe maternal morbidity (24.8 percent vs. 1.7 percent in the general population) at 330 days of follow up. These mothers also had elevated risks of preterm birth, readmission, transfusion, and nontransfusion associated complications. Among these patients, nearly 30 percent required readmission, and 6 percent experienced heart transplant related complications.

Although outcomes of heart transplant continue to improve, pregnancy after transplant should be treated with significant caution.