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6th year Medical student from the college of Medicine member of QU-Health
Due to the limited published data related to the clinical presentation of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), this study aimed to examine the clinical presentation, management, and outcomes of patients with PPCM using data collected from 47 hospitals in 7 Middle East countries.
The study included 64 patients hospitalized with acute heart failure (HF) with the diagnosis of PPCM. Most of the patients were Arabs (96.9%) with a mean age of 32.5 ± 5.8 years. A family history of cardiomyopathy/HF was present in 11 patients (17.2%), and 12 patients (18.8%) had a past history of HF. Hypertension was present in seven patients (10.9%) and diabetes mellitus in three patients (4.7%).
Based on the results, the study suggests using transthoracic echocardiography and B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) biomarker as a useful screening tests to aid in an early diagnosis to limit life‐threatening complications. Future HF registries should include variables specific to pregnancy and fetal outcomes, when PPCM is the etiology of HF, which would enable detailed study of this uncommon condition. A high index of suspicion of PPCM is required to make the diagnosis as associated symptoms and signs can be indistinguishable from those related to normal pregnancy.
This paper is a great addition to this field as it will help in guiding the management approach of PPCM patients, because of the lack of published data in this topic particularly from the Middle East.
Mohamed Badie Ahmed 6th year medical student said: “Every research experience carries its own lessons that help in building the research’s knowledge and skills. This experience is unique as it was my first time to collaborate with researchers from different countries and this added a lot to my experience. In addition, being the only student in this amazing research group was a challenge, as I was not representing only myself, but all QU-CMED students. With confidence, I can say that the impression taken about the students is great as we proved that QU-CMED students have the ability to originate and publish researches in well-reputed journals with high impact factor. I believe that this publication is the spark that will lead to flames of achievements.”
The main authors of this paper include Dr. Amar M. Salam, Mohamed Badie Ahmed and Dr. Alison S. Carr. They are affiliated to College of Medicine, QU Health, and Qatar University.
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