Introduction
Pregnancy causes several physiological changes as well as changes in
cardiovascular system. These changes are usually seen during pregnancy
and mostly resolve after delivery. Plasma volume, heart rate and stroke
volume increase in pregnancy and because of these changes cardiac output
increases (1). The change in stroke volume occurs by means of increase
in ventricular muscle mass and cardiac chamber dilation seen in all four
cardiac chambers. The effect of stroke volume on cardiac output is more
evident in early course of pregnancy and later in the course it is
mainly associated with increased heart rate. Besides these changes, left
ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and right ventricular (RV) systolic
function do not change in pregnancy (2-3). RV has a key role in
cardiovascular physiology and shows compensatory changes including RV
dilation and hypertrophy in pregnancy (4). Although there are many
studies demonstrated the effects of pregnancy on cardiovascular system;
the long-term effect of pregnancy on right heart functions has not been
studied. We thought that some changes can persist after delivery in some
extent and there may be an additive effect of each pregnancy on these
changes. Therefore, we have evaluated the long-term effect of pregnancy
on RV dilation and RV hypertrophy and their relation of the number of
parity.