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. 2017 Jan 20;113(6):598–608. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvw245

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Serum Relaxin levels in healthy peripartum women and in PPCM. (A) Serum Relaxin-2 levels in healthy non-pregnant (NP, n = 9) women, pregnant women (Prg, n = 10) and postpartum women (1 day n = 12, 2d n = 17, 3d n = 5, 0.5–10 months n = 11), **P < 0.01 vs. NP; #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01 PP vs. Prg), data are median with interquartile range, one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni’s Multiple Comparison Test. (B) Serum Relaxin-2 levels in PPCM patients vs. healthy postpartum controls with serum collected in the first postpartum week (PPCM: n = 15 vs. Control PP: n = 36, **P < 0.01) and (C) measured in later diagnosed patients and postpartum stage-matched controls where serum was obtained after the first postpartum week (PPCM: n = 40 and Control PP: n = 11). Data are shown as median with interquartile range, please note that patients and controls with Relaxin-2 levels below the limit of detection are not included within the scatter plot due to logarithmical scaling, but were used for median and statistical calculation, normality test by D’Agostino–Pearson, Mann-Whitney test for PPCM vs. controls. (D) Serum NT-proBNP levels in PPCM patients vs. healthy control postpartum women (PPCM: n = 34 vs. Control PP: n = 16, **P < 0.01, data are mean ± SD, unpaired, two-tailed t-test. (E) Improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (ΔEF: LVEF at follow-up–LVEF at diagnosis) of PPCM patients with serum Relaxin-2 levels at diagnosis <20 pg/ml (n = 37) or >20 pg/ml (n = 7), data are mean ± SD.