Pregnancy with heart disease. Experience at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh.

Pregnant patients with heart disease seen between 1980 and 1985 were studied. The incidence of heart disease in pregnancy was 1.3%. Rheumatic heart disease was the commonest lesion (78%), followed by congenital heart disease (18.7%). In the rheumatic heart disease group, mitral stenosis was the commonest lesion (71.54%), and patients who had been or were operated on for their heart disease had less severe dyspnoea and fewer complications. The mode of delivery and the foetal and maternal mortality did not differ significantly in operated and non operated patients.