Background: Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) cardiomyopathy is a persistence of abnormal foetal myocardium and is a rare cause of cardiomyopathy in the peripartum period. Unlike other causes of peripartum cardiomyopathy which typically improve, LVNC has significant long-term personal and family implications and needs lifelong follow-up.
Case summary: We describe a unique case of a 30-year-old woman who developed cardiomyopathy in the peripartum period which was revealed on cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging to be due to occult LVNC. Our patient also had Ebstein's anomaly, which is a known LVNC association.
Discussion: Cardiomyopathy in the peripartum period can be a decompensation of previously asymptomatic subclinical cardiomyopathy. It is important to assess for LVNC in patients presenting with this. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging is the gold-standard imaging modality and allows accurate diagnosis of LVNC, associated structural complications and rare associations such as Ebstein's anomaly. Left ventricular non-compaction is irreversible and has implications for patients and their family members.
Keywords: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance; Case report; Ebstein’s anomaly; Echocardiography; Left ventricular non-compaction; Peripartum cardiomyopathy.
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.