Successful Treatment of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy with Plasmapheresis.

UNLABELLED: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare, life-threatening disease of late pregnancy and early puerperium among previously healthy women. Management of this challenging disease is similar to other forms of systolic heart failure. Unfortunately, only 30% to 50% of patients recover completely. Among the remaining patients, continued poor ejection fraction indicates irreversible cardiomyopathy and portends a poor outcome. Immune complexes, autoantibodies, or toxic proteins are likely causative agents. Herein, we report first two PPCM cases that were successfully managed with plasmapheresis.

KEY WORDS: Peripartum cardiomyopathy; Plasmapheresis.