Pregnancy in inherited and acquired cardiomyopathies.

Cardiomyopathy encompasses a wide spectrum of heart muscle disease, which can have an impact on the patient's ability to sustain the increased cardiac workload of pregnancy. Pregnancy can also unmask previously unknown cardiomyopathy. The outcome for both mother and baby is often related to the patient's functional class prior to pregnancy, and a multidisciplinary approach to managing this challenging group of patients is pivotal.