We hypothesized that cardiac pumping in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia would be affected by the increased volume load on the heart during normal pregnancy and increased pressure load in pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia. The aim of this study was therefore to compare healthy pregnant women and women with preclampsia to healthy non-pregnant controls matched for age and cardiac index. The results were unexpected. Women with preeclampsia did not differ compared to healthy non-pregnant controls, whereas healthy pregnant women had significantly lower atrioventricular plane displacement and consequently a lower longitudinal contribution to stroke volume.
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