Type of headache at onset and risk for complications in reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.

Background: In a recent Italian study, 30% of patients with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) presented without thunderclap headache (TCH), and tended to present more severe forms of RCVS than patients with TCH. We aimed to analyze the risk for complications of RCVS in patients with and without TCH at onset.

Methods: In a pooled cohort of 345 French patients with RCVS, we compared patients with and without TCH at onset regarding rates of neurological complications, and the functional outcome at 3 months.

Predictors of outcome in 176 South African patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy.

Objective: Identify novel prognostic factors for patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM).

Design And Setting: Prospective cohort study conducted in a single tertiary care centre in South Africa.

Patients: 176 African women with newly diagnosed PPCM were studied.

Long-term outcome of peripartum cardiomyopathy in a population with high seropositivity for human immunodeficiency virus.

Background: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare cardiomyopathy with a high risk of mortality. The present study assessed clinical outcome and mortality over a 2-year period in an African cohort of 80 PPCM patients.

Methods: A prospective study over a 2-year period at a tertiary center, where 80 consecutive women presenting with PPCM were enrolled on first diagnosis.

Reversal of IFN-gamma, oxLDL and prolactin serum levels correlate with clinical improvement in patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy.

Aim: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is characterized by acute onset of heart failure of unknown aetiology. We aimed to identify mechanisms involved in initiation and progression of the disease.

Methods And Results: Serum markers related to cardiac function, apoptosis, oxidative stress, remodelling, inflammation and the nursing hormone prolactin were analyzed in PPCM patients and healthy controls.

A cathepsin D-cleaved 16 kDa form of prolactin mediates postpartum cardiomyopathy.

Postpartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a disease of unknown etiology and exposes women to high risk of mortality after delivery. Here, we show that female mice with a cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of stat3 develop PPCM. In these mice, cardiac cathepsin D (CD) expression and activity is enhanced and associated with the generation of a cleaved antiangiogenic and proapoptotic 16 kDa form of the nursing hormone prolactin.