Baseline characteristics:
During the study period, 117 patients with diagnosis of native LVOTO/AS were seen in the Cardiac Obstetrics Clinic. A total of 34 pregnancies fulfilled our study criteria. A majority of patients were excluded due to the lack of serial TTE studies (n=64). Other reasons for exclusion were presence of other cardiac and medical comorbidities (n=49) or early termination of pregnancy < 20 weeks (n=4). The patient baseline characteristics are summarized in Table 1. The cases had the following diagnoses: bicuspid aortic valve (18, 53%); bicuspid aortic valve/aortic coarctation (14, 41%); sub-valvular aortic stenosis (1, 3%) and bicuspid aortic valve/sub-valvular stenosis (1, 3%).
All of the controls were NYHA I at the time of pregnancy. The control group had the following referral diagnoses: murmur (9, 26%); presyncope (4, 12%); palpitations (14, 41%); electrocardiogram abnormalities (2, 6%); screening due to family history (5, 15%). The case/control groups were similar in age, pre-or early pregnancy blood pressure/heart rate and BMI.