Peripartum maternal cardiomyopathy with idiopathic cardiomyopathy in the offspring. A case report.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is an enigmatic disorder. A patient who developed it after delivery had a twin pregnancy complicated by demise of one fetus, preterm labor and subsequent preterm delivery of the viable twin, who died at 48 hours of life. The second twin had autopsy evidence of idiopathic cardiomyopathy, as did a prior child, who had died at 2 years of age. This report is the first on a woman with peripartum cardiomyopathy associated with idiopathic cardiomyopathy in her live-born infant. Our findings, in conjunction with those noted in a review of the literature, suggest that there is a subset of peripartum cardiomyopathy that may be mediated on a genetic or immunologic basis.