Getting around peripartum cardiomyopathy

A Harvard Medical School-led team has shown that a soluble form of VEGF receptor 1 causes about one-third of peripartum cardiomyopathy cases-those associated with preeclampsia.¹ Ongoing studies are seeking to identify small molecule inhibitors of the protein and determine whether the mechanism also underlies the other two-thirds of cases.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a form of heart failure that affects about 1 in 1,000 peripartum women. The disease is usually diagnosed a few weeks postpartum, and current treatments are limited to standard therapies for heart failure such as b-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors...