
02/11/2020
CARDIO-OBSTETRICS
Cardio-obstetrics refers to a team-based approach to maternal care that includes collaboration among maternal fetal medicine, cardiology, anesthesiology, neonatology, nursing, social work, and pharmacy.
Recognizing and measuring outcomes associated with various types of maternal CVD is an important and fundamental role of cardio-obstetric programs. In a recent statement, the American Heart Association emphasized the role of cardio-obstetrics in addressing and decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality in the preconception, antepartum, and postpartum periods.
In a 2019 Practice Bulletin, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) defined 4 risk factors related to CVD-related mortality in pregnant and postpartum patients: race/ethnicity, advanced age, hypertension, and obesity.
Cardiac Disease in Pregnancy (CARPREG II) score
The score incorporates 10 predictors of adverse cardiac events during pregnancy including prior cardiac events or arrhythmias, baseline New York Heart Association functional class, mechanical valve, ventricular dysfunction, high-risk left-sided valve disease/left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, pulmonary hypertension, coronary artery disease, high-risk aortopathy, no prior cardiac intervention, and late pregnancy assessment (defined as first antenatal visit >20 weeks)
Patients are categorized by scores of 0–1, 2, 3, 4, and >4, with higher scores associated with increased risk of maternal cardiac events.
Cardio-obstetrics teams are multidisciplinary and provide comprehensive care for women throughout the preconception, antepartum, and postpartum periods. The need for increased research collaboration regarding cardio-obstetrics has been identified, and the field of maternal cardiac care and cardio-obstetrics is evolving as an area of focus among cardiologists
The goal of the cardio-obstetrics model is to provide comprehensive maternal care. This should incorporate preconception counseling for women with pre-existing medical problems, consideration of referral versus co-management options, promotion of management guidelines to care for high-risk maternal patients, as well as multidisciplinary case conferences where complex cases can be discussed with a variety of care providers. In addition, comprehensive maternal care centers allows for colocalization of specialists across disciplines including maternal fetal medicine, cardiology, neurology, surgery, and endocrinology for mothers before, during, and after high-risk pregnancies in the same physical space