Baseline characteristics
| Cardiac events late after pregnancy | |||
| N (%) of pregnancies | |||
| Total number of pregnancies | Present (N=50) | Absent (N=355) | p Value |
| Maternal baseline characteristics | |||
| Maternal age (years) | 29±6 | 28±5 | 0.71 |
| Parity ≥1 | 31 (62) | 148 (42) | 0.009 |
| Smoking | 4 (8) | 25 (7) | 0.77 |
| Hypertension or diabetes | 1 (2) | 5 (2) | 0.55 |
| Adverse cardiac events before pregnancy* | 14 (28) | 34 (10) | 0.001 |
| Cardiovascular medications | 12 (24) | 51 (14) | 0.10 |
| NYHA functional class >II or resting cyanosis | 3 (6) | 7 (2) | 0.11 |
| Baseline echocardiographic characteristics | |||
| Subaortic ventricular dysfunction | 11 (22) | 26 (7) | 0.002 |
| Left heart obstruction | 10 (20) | 41 (12) | 0.11 |
| Subpulmonary ventricular dysfunction and/or pulmonary regurgitation | 12 (24) | 41 (12) | 0.02 |
| Mitral and/or aortic regurgitation (≥ moderate in severity) | 2 (4) | 9 (3) | 0.64 |
| Pulmonary artery systolic pressure >40 mm Hg | 8 (16) | 41 (12) | 0.47 |
| Range | 7–71 | 16–51 | |
| CARPREG risk score5 | |||
| Risk score ≥1 | 29 (58) | 95 (27) | <0.001 |
| Pregnancy outcomes | |||
| Adverse maternal cardiac event during pregnancy | 10 (20) | 36 (10) | 0.04 |
↵* Adverse cardiac events before or after pregnancy were defined as any of the following: cardiac death, cardiac arrest, pulmonary oedema, sustained symptomatic tachyarrhythmia and/or bradyarrhythmia requiring treatment, or stroke or transient ischaemic attack.
CARPREG, maternal cardiac risk index; NYHA, New York Heart Association.