Pregnancy stresses the heart and circulatory system. During pregnancy, blood volume increases by 30 to 50 percent. The amount of blood the heart pumps each minute also increases by 30 to 50 percent, and heart rate increases as well. These changes cause the heart to work harder, as do labor and delivery. This issue covers diagnosis and treatment of cardiac symptoms and cardiac emergencies during pregnancy.

This issue of Cardiology Clinics, curated by Dr. Melinda Davis and Dr. Kathryn Lindley, will explore topics related to Pregnancy and Heart Disease. This issue is one of four selected each year by the series editorial board: Jamil A. Aboulhosn, David M. Shavelle, Terrence D. Welch, and Audrey H. Wu. Topics in this volume include, but are not limited to, Cardiovascular Contribution to Maternal Mortality, Risk stratification and The Pregnancy Heart Team, Cardiovascular Testing in Pregnant Women, Obstetric Considerations and Delivery Planning, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Aortopathies and Vascular Disease, Arrhythmias, Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy, Ischemic Heart Disease, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Peripartum Cardiomyopathy ̧ Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Valvular Heart Disease, Medication Safety during Pregnancy, and Delivering Coordinated Care from Preconception through Postpartum.

The Guest Editors have assembled expert authors to provide current clinical views and recommendations for patients with medical disorders in pregnancy. Clinical reviews are devoted to the following topics: Obstructive sleep apnea in pregnancy; Pregestational Diabetes; Gestational Diabetes; Maternal mortality in the 21 century; Infections in pregnancy and the role of vaccines; Peripartum cardiomyopathy; Update on HIV in pregnancy: Thromboprophylaxis; Opiate abuse in pregnancy.

Cardiovascular Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Cardiovascular Diseases. The editors have built Cardiovascular Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Cardiovascular Diseases in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Cardiovascular Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women in the US, with more women dying from heart disease than men. Women may have different presentation from men and often need a different approach to diagnosis and treatment. There are also unique topics of management of heart disease in women, including issues during pregnancy, lactation, and menopause. Many different health care providers, as well as cardiologists are involved in treating these patients. A manual reviewing diagnosis and treatment of cardiac disease in women would help providers without specific cardiology training to deliver care with greater efficiency. A practical and comprehensive guide geared towards these providers would be a highly practical and valuable resource that would be utilized in everyday practice in offices that include urban clinics, general medicine offices, obstetrics and gynecology offices, as well as in the surgical subspecialties. This book will be a highly practical resource that can be directly applied to the issues that arise in everyday practice. There is no available book on the market that focuses on a broader approach to cardiac disease in women or focuses on non-cardiology providers (and their trainees) who have the need to know more about treatment of cardiovascular disease in women.​

The present book reveals the importance of preventive medicine in cardiology and public health, addressing the lack of a broad discussion of this topic in the current literature. It examines the most important risk factors for different cardiovascular diseases, discussing them in detail from a clinical standpoint and presenting important information from a preventive medicine perspective. Further, specific chapters discuss the burden of cardiologic risk factors in special contexts, such as in women, child and adolescents, and in low-income populations. Lastly, a number of conditions that are often overlooked in terms of their cardiological impact are discussed, such as Chagas disease, rheumatic cardiomyopathy and post-traumatic stress disorder. Cardiovascular diseases are still the major cause of death in the world, even though they are considered preventable clinical conditions. The increased prevalence of some risk factors for cardiovascular diseases is an important concern for cardiologists around the world. On the other hand, primary prevention programs have proven their efficacy concerning some known and treatable risk factors, such as with hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking, but still need to be made more of a priority in public health. Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases is a book intended for multi-disciplinary audience and aimed for all professionals who are willing to face the challenge of cardiovascular prevention