The Clinical Significance and Prognosis of Fetal Arrhythmias / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To summarize the common causes of fetal arrhythmia and explore its clinical significance and correlation with fetal prognosis. Methods The clinical situation and diagnostic procedure as well as the results of long-term follow-up of 26 cases of fetal arrthythmias were analyzed retrospectively. Results The incidence of fetal arrhythmias is 0.2%. 11.5%(3/26) of them were diagnosed fetal tachycardia, 15.4% (4/26) of them were diagnosed fetal bradycardia and 73.1% (19/26)were diagnosed irregular fetal cardiac rhythm . The average gestational age they were diagnosed was 35 +2 weeks (15 weeks to 41 +1weeks). Twenty-two cases were diagnosed by antenatal auscultation, 1 case was diagnosed by ultrasonography at 15 weeks' gestation, 3 cases were diagnosed by fetal heart monitoring. We performed fetal echocardiograms on 17 fetuses, 6 cases (35.3%)showed that premature atrial contraction with normal structure of fetal heart. All of the neonates survived postnatally and 24 of them (92.3%) accepted follow-up. Echocardiograms for16 neonates were performed and 2 of them were identified as atrial septal defects with normal heart rhythms. The incidence of structure heart disease in fetal arrhythmia is 7.7%. Conclusion The prognosis is well for most of the fetuses with arrhythmias, the incidence of heart structure disease is very low among them. We should pay attention to diagnose the fetus of heart structure disease with persistant bradycardia. Temporization for the management of arrhythmiatic fetuses should be accepted and the decision for termination of pregnancy should be made according to obstetric indication.