Maternal arrhythmia and perinatal outcomes

Objective:the objective of this study was to determine whether arrhythmia in the setting of maternal cardiac disease (mcd) affects perinatal outcomes.study design:this is a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women with mcd who delivered during 2008 to 2013. perinatal outcomes among women with an arrhythmia were compared with those without.results:among 143 women, 36 (25%) had an arrhythmia. those with an arrhythmia were more likely to have a spontaneous vaginal delivery (64 vs 43%, p<0.05) and required fewer operative vaginal births (8 vs 27%, p=0.02). pregnancies were more likely to be complicated by intrauterine growth restriction (iugr) (17 vs 5%, p<0.05), although there were no differences in the rate of small for gestational age. the risk of iugr remained increased after controlling for confounding (adjusted odds ratio 6.98, 95% confidence interval 1.59 to 30.79, p=0.01). two cases of placental abruption were identified among mothers with arrhythmia while none were identified in the controls (p<0.05).conclusion:patients with arrhythmias were more likely to have a spontaneous vaginal delivery. our data suggest that these pregnancies were an increased risk for iugr.