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J Family Med Prim Care
J Family Med Prim Care
JFMPC
J Family Med Prim Care
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care
2249-4863
2278-7135
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow India

JFMPC-13-3452
10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_45_24
Letter to Editor
Medical complications in pregnancy
Gupta Harish
Department of Medicine, King George’s Medical University, Chowk, Lucknow, UP, India
Address for correspondence: Dr. Harish Gupta, Department of Medicine, King George’s Medical University, Chowk, Lucknow - 226 003, UP, India. E-mail: harishgupta@kgmcindia.edu
8 2024
26 7 2024
13 8 34523452
09 1 2024
01 3 2024
07 3 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care
2024
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
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pmcDear Editor,

“In past 20 years, the world has made notable gains in the health of women and girls. Still, 800 women die each day due to preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. On #WomensDay, we reiterate our commitment to address the root causes of women’s and girl’s health disparities”. – Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of World Health Organization, Mar 8, 2023[1]

Prasad et al.[2] find a connection between cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and follow its outcomes in their prospective study in Nov 2023 issue of the Journal. The authors discovered 65 women with adverse effects, classified them into various groups, and made seven tables to present their results. Having gone through the tables, a reader can easily grasp the core findings of the study, and I am grateful to the authors for their Herculean efforts to convey their findings in such a simple manner. The table depicting the association between group and obstetric complications shows the relationship in a systematic way and I found it easy to make the association.

Nevertheless, there are a few points of wonder where I seek more information from the authors. The authors state the study period to be between January 2020 to December 2020. In this duration, the outcome of a few women in relation to their cardiovascular disease was studied and is published here as the authors state therein. However, the period was extraordinary in history of the mankind as that is related to COVID-19.[3] Rates of cesarean section are known to have increased during the pandemic.[4] So what is the effect of the pandemic on the small study group, I am perplexed. Whether anyone in the cohort contract the infection; and if yes, how many are the poser? Only then we may be able to decipher the aftereffects.[5] However, I am unable to find the crucial data therein.

COVID-19 infection is known to cause myocarditis and pericarditis.[6] So, whether some pregnant person developed the complication here, I want to know. Viral fevers are one of the most common causes of inflammation of cardiac tissue and SARS-CoV-2 is no exception. Therefore, I am looking for the prevalence of the known association here. Maternal mortality and complications extend up to 1 year after delivery and sometimes lead to morbidity and mortality.[7] So, in this study, what was the follow-up, and for how much duration, I am curious. By looking closely into the missing data, we may further extend our knowledge, examine the effects of the pandemic in a wider way, and be better prepared in the future should the next one arrive.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.
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1 Dr Tedros, on twitter Available from: https://x.com/DrTedros/status/1633453514679541763?s=20 [Last accessed on 2023 Dec 22]
2 Prasad D Prasad RV Choudhary MK Kumari K Cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and its outcome: A prospective study J Family Med Prim Care 2023 12 2714 20 38186795
3 Our World in Data. India: Coronavirus pandemic country profile Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/india [Last accessed on 2023 Dec 21]
4 Silva CEBD Guida JPS Costa ML Increased cesarean section rates during the COVID-19 pandemic: Looking for reasons through the robson ten group classification system Rev Bras Ginecol Obstet 2023 45 e371 6 37595593
5 Mayo Clinic Staff. Pregnancy and COVID- 19: What are the risks? [Updated on 2024 Apr 5] Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/pregnancy-and-covid-19/art-20482639
6 Fairweather D Beetler DJ Di Florio DN Musigk N Heidecker B Cooper LT Jr COVID-19, Myocarditis and pericarditis Circ Res 2023 132 1302 19 37167363
7 Schrey-Petersen S Tauscher A Dathan-Stumpf A Stepan H Diseases and complications of the puerperium Dtsch Arztebl Int 2021 118 436 46 33972015
