Pfaller B, Sathananthan G, Grewal J, et al. - By analyzing a prospectively gathered cohort of 1,315 pregnancies in women with heart disease, researchers assessed the incidence of serious cardiac events (SCEs) in this patient population and also determined if these events were preventable, and how these influence fetal as well as neonatal outcomes. They also assessed serious obstetric events. They noted that SCEs complicated 3.6% of pregnancies (47 of 1,315). Cardiac death or arrest, heart failure, arrhythmias, and urgent interventions constituted the most common SCEs. The antepartum period was the time point when most SCEs (66%) happened. In pregnancies with SCEs vs those without cardiac events, adverse fetal and neonatal events were more frequent. Less common (1.7%) were serious obstetric events. Overall, the presence of risk for serious cardiac complications was evident in pregnant women with heart disease, and about one-half of all SCEs were preventable. There is a necessity to develop strategies to avert serious cardiac complications in this high-risk cohort of women.