Obsgynaecritcare

You are called to assess a pregnant woman who presents to your hospital complaining of shortness of breath. She is 36 weeks pregnant with twins and tells you she had been getting progressively short of breath over the last month but put it down to the physical effects of the twin pregnancy in her abdomen. However last night she couldn't get her breath lying flat, had to sleep sitting up on 3-4 pillows and feels that "it is much worse". On examination she has a respiratory rate of 24/min, SpO2 = 92%, HR 105/min, BP 95/45 and you can hear crepitations in both lung fields. Her initial blood tests come back showing a raised plasma BNP and a bedside ECHO is done by a helpful colleague - who says "subjectively her LV isn't contracting very well". Hi everyone, This week I sit down with Dr Faith Njue the most qualified person here in WA to discuss the rare but important disease - peripartum cardiomyopathy. (See Faith's Bio below). Join us in our wide ranging discussion which touches on the diagnostic challen