Webinar Overview

This webinar, hosted by ACC's Reproductive Health and Cardio-Obstetrics Member Section, will highlight findings from a recent study evaluating preeclampsia's role in pregnancy after heart transplant and provide input from a multidisciplinary panel of cardio-obstetrics experts.

In this webinar, we will explore the care of pregnant patients who have undergone a heart transplant prior to pregnancy. We'll begin by reviewing a relevant case study, and will then be joined by the authors of the recent study, "Heart Transplant and Pregnancy: Evaluating the Role of Preeclampsia in Maternal, Neonatal, and Graft Morbidity," published in JACC: Heart Failure, who will provide an overview of the study's design and key findings.

The session will conclude with a live Q&A featuring a multidisciplinary expert panel, including maternal-fetal medicine specialists, heart failure (HF) and transplant physicians, HF pharmacists, and cardio-obstetrics experts.

Together, they will discuss best practices for managing patients with heart transplants during pregnancy.

Key Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

1. The risk of preeclampsia and severe maternal morbidity are high in pregnant patients with a heart transplant, which may be partially related to high prevalence of comorbid risk factors such as hypertension.
2. Among pregnant patients with a heart transplant, preeclampsia is associated with worse neonatal outcomes including lower gestational age at delivery and higher proportion of neonatal intensive care unit stays.
3. Risk of graft loss is not impacted by development of preeclampsia, although preeclampsia may be associated with a shorter time interval to graft loss.
4. Patients with heart transplant pursuing pregnancy should be counseled on the potential maternal and fetal risks as well as strategies to minimize those risks, ideally preconception.

Webinar Participants

Malamo Countouris, MD, FACC
Colleen Harrington, MD, FACC
Kazuhiko Kido, PharmD, PhD
Vanessa Kirschner
Jenna Skowronski, MD
Stephanie M. Spehar, MD
Mary Norine Walsh, MD, MACC
Ophelia Yin, MD

Credit Information

No credit is being offered for this webinar.