Newborn arrhythmia with cardiac enlargement: etiology and clinical features / 中国新生儿科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the etiology and clinical features of arrhythmia in neonates with cardiac cardiomegaly.Method A retrospective study was conducted on newborns with arrhythmia hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of our Hospiatal from January 2016 to May 2018.The eases were assigned into arrhythmia with cardiac enlargement group and non-benign arrhythmia without cardiac enlargement group cardiomegaly.The etiology,clinical features and prognosis of newborns with arrhythmia and cardiac enlargement were analyzed.Result There were 15 newborns with arrhythmia accompanied with cardiac enlargement,all of them were non-benign arrhythmias,which accounted for 26.8％ (15/56) of all non-benign arrhythmias in the same period.The causes included infections viral myocarditis,pneumonia and digestive tract infection,electrolytes and acid-base imbalance hypocalcemia,hyperkalemia and metabolic acidosis,structural cardiac abnormalities,metabolic cardiomyopathy,nodular sclerosis and indwelling central venous catheter.The median age of onset was 9 (0,19) days,and the median medical history was 2 (1,7) days,the significance of which were not different from those of non-benign arrhythmias without cardiac enlargement group (41 cases).The rate of cesarean section and ventricular rate＞160 bpm at admission were higher than those in the non-benign arrhythmias without cardiac enlargement group.12 of 15 cases began with weak responses,poor appetite and dyspnea.The common arrhythmia types were paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (6 cases),atrial tachycardia (4 cases) and atrial flutter (4 cases).The proportion of atrial flutter was higher than that of the non-benign arrhythmias without cardiac enlargement group.8 cases received respiratory support.The average length of stay was (18.4±8.6) days.The mortality rate during hospitalization was 6.7％.The echocardiographic results showed that left atrioventricular enlargement and ejection fraction of left ventricle less than 60％ during arrhythmic episode.The cardiac size and systolic functions of left ventricle reverting to normal after improvement.During the follow-up period,1 case died and 2 cases lost to follow-up,all of them were discharged against medical advice.The median follow-up time of other cases was 1.6 (1.3,2.2) years.All of them recovered well without abnormalities in cardiac size or cardiac function by echocardiography.Conclusion Most newborns with arrhythmia accompanied by cardiac enlargement had insidious onset.Tachyarrhythmia was common and infection was the main cause.Attention should be paid to screening of rare causes in clinical practice.Non-benign arrhythmias with or without cardiac enlargement have no significant difference in the overall prognosis by active treatment.