I know of no studies in dogs with which to answer your questions. In humans, mild mitral regurgitation is usually well-tolerated in pregnancy. But pregnancy does usually cause an increase in regurgitation (at full-term, almost 30% of previously regurgitation-free women will have some mitral valve regurgitation). Blood volume (the amount of blood the heart has to pump) increases by 50% during pregnancy.
There is probably also an increased risk of endocarditis/thrombus during pregnancy in women with valve disease; some cardiologists put women with mitral valve regurgitation on antibiotics. With more severe valve disease, heparin may also be given. Leanne Int J Cardiol 1993 Jul 15;40(3):265-72 Physiologic multivalvular regurgitation during pregnancy: a longitudinal Doppler echocardiographic study. Campos O, Andrade JL, Bocanegra J, Ambrose JA, Carvalho AC, Harada K, Martinez EE. During pregnancy, slight but significant increases of the four cardiac chamber dimensions and valve annular diameters were observed. The prevalence of physiologic valvular regurgitation in early pregnancy (mitral, 0%; tricuspid, 38.9%; pulmonary, 22.2%; aortic, 0%), was similar to a control group of 18 healthy non-pregnant women. As pregnancy evolved, there was a progressive and significant increase of multivalvular regurgitation, maximal at full-term (mitral, 27.8%; tricuspid, 94.4%; pulmonary, 94.4%, P < 0.05 vs. early pregnancy). Jpn Circ J 1986 Apr;50(4):376-83 Pregnancy in cardiac patients: possible influence of volume overload by pregnancy on pulmonary circulation. Sugishita Y, Ito I, Kubo T. To evaluate the influence of volume overload by pregnancy on heart diseases, the relations between cardiac status before pregnancy and clinical courses during pregnancy were studied, especially from the viewpoint of pulmonary circulation. Some cases with no deteriorating laboratory findings showed dyspnea suddenly at the end of pregnancy. In 1033 cardiac patients who had experienced pregnancy, deterioration during pregnancy was seen more frequently in cases with mitral valvular diseases that in those with aortic valvular diseases. No deterioration was seen in pulmonary stenosis patients. ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
