Left ventricular mechanics in the late second trimester of healthy pregnancy

What is it about?

During pregnancy, a mother's heart must adapt in order to supply blood carrying oxygen and nutrients to the developing baby. As such, the heart of a pregnant woman gets larger in size, beats faster at rest and pumps out a greater volume of blood. Whilst these changes are well known, how the heart contracts during pregnancy is less clear. We show that healthy pregnant women in the second trimester have greater cardiac contraction than non-pregnant women.

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