Complete heart block is one of the least frequent observations in all patients with cardiovascular disease. Since its commonest cause is arteriosclerosis most patients with this condition are beyond the childbearing period. The combination of complete heart block and pregnancy is, therefore, rather rare. Diddle1 reviewed the literature to 1941 and could find only 21 authenticated cases. To these he added his own. Since then there have been reports by Yepez,2 Quentin,3 Mitchell and his co-workers4 and Barton and LaDue,5 making, with this presentation, a total of 27 patients in whom pregnancy has been complicated by this serious disturbance of cardiac rhythm. This is the first such case observed in this hospital in 15,708 deliveries over a ten year period.
REPORT OF A CASE
The patient, Mrs. E. F. H., a 34 year old white woman, was first seen by us on March 16, 1946,