[Myocardial infarct in the puerperium]

Abstract

Two women of 34 and 31 years suffered an acute myocardial infarction in the puerperium. One of them had many risk factors for atherosclerosis: hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, nicotine abuse and a positive family history for cardiovascular disease. She had an occluded right coronary artery and was successfully treated with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. The other patient had an acute myocardial infarction after her first delivery. She was known with hypercholesterolaemia, obesity and nicotine abuse. During her latest pregnancy she was treated with acetylsalicylic acid. Again she developed an acute myocardial infarction in the puerperium, probably due to coronary dissection. Although the incidence of acute myocardial infarction is low in the peripartal period (less than 1 in 10,000) the diagnosis should be considered when a woman presents with chest pain or dyspnoea.