Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Complicated by Pulmonary Edema in the Postpartum Period

Copyright © 2013 Kate Hanneman et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We report the case of a 42-year-old patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)who presented to the emergency department with severe shortness of breath one week following uneventful cesarean delivery. Thoracic CT ruled out pulmonary embolus and confirmed pulmonary edema. Asymmetric interventricular septal thickening was clearly identified, demonstrating that the heart may be evaluated even on a non-ECG gated study. Acute pulmonary edema in the postpartum period is an unusual clinical presentation of HCM. 1