The multidisciplinary management of pulmonary arterial hypertension patients in pregnancy and postpartum: A case series

Abstract

Study objective

Pregnancy has been contraindicated in the setting of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) due to elevated maternal and fetal risk. We review our center's successful experience with pregnant PAH patients in this case series.

Study design

This is a retrospective case series.

Participants

Six patients with PAH with seven pregnancies delivered at Tampa General Hospital from 2014 to 2024.

Interventions

All cases involved a multidisciplinary team to optimize antenatal and intrapartum management. The REVEAL 2.0 risk assessment tool also guided treatment planning by determining risk status.

Results

Almost all of the patients in our study were diagnosed with PAH by right heart catheterization at our institution pre- or during pregnancy. All patients were either on a phosphodiesterase inhibitor or prostacyclin during their pregnancies. One mother was admitted at 34 weeks 1 day for decompensated heart failure without prior PAH treatment. All patients with outpatient follow-up had serial 6 min walk distances, brain natriuretic peptide levels, echocardiograms, and right heart catheterizations, and were able to achieve a low risk REVEAL 2.0 score during the pregnancy. All patient cases delivered via cesarean section with shared decision making and 5/7 cases were preterm. There was a 100 % maternal and fetal survival rate in our case series within the 1 year postpartum period.

Conclusion

Although pregnancy is a relative contraindication in patients with PAH, our case series demonstrates that a multidisciplinary approach to care at a specialized center for pulmonary vascular disease with close, personalized ante- and postnatal management can result in successful outcomes.