[Alcohol in pregnancy and fetal heart damage]. / Alkohol in der Schwangerschaft und kindliche Herzschäden.

Alcohol abuse and addiction during pregnancy can induce damage of the heart muscle and heart defects in the offspring. Between 1973 and 1991 216 children with fetal alcohol syndrome were diagnosed and examined for congenital heart defects. In 63 children (= 29,1%) heart defects were present, established mainly by heart catheterization and/or echocardiography. Most frequently ventricular septal defects (24/63) and atrial septal defects (23/63) occurred, less frequent were AV-defects (3), PDA (3), Fallots teralogy (5), and other malformations (5). Biopsy during heart surgery in 3 children revealed histological and electron microscopic changes of alcohol-cardiomyopathy. Heart defects are predominantly found in children with higher degree of severity concerning the clinical syndrome, less frequently in alcohol effects (4/38 = 11%). Alcohol in pregnancy, even in the course of so called social drinking, usual drinking and binge drinking has to be considered as an essential and preventable co-factor within the multifactorial etiology of congenital heart defects.

[Diverticulum of the brachiocephalic trunk--angiographic image and embryologic significance]. / Das Divertikel des Truncus brachiocephalicus--Angiographische Darstellung und embryologische Deutung.

A diverticulum of the brachiocephalic trunk is described in 5 children with unilateral absence of the pulmonary artery, in a child with tetralogy of Fallot, and in an other child with Bland-White-Garland syndrome. The diverticulum is a remnant of a contralateral ductus arteriosus, which cLosed after birth and represents the origin of the distal part of the sixth aortic arch.

Absent pulmonary artery. A hint to its embryogenesis.

Cardiac catheterization was performed in nine patients with unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery. Aortography revealed a diverticulum of the innominate artery in five of six patients in whom the aortic arch and absent pulmonary artery were on opposite sides. It is suggested that the diverticulum indicates fetal systemic blood supply to the affected lung through the distal part of the sixth aortic arch, which--consisting of ductal tissue--obliterated after birth, leaving the diverticulum where the ductus joins the innominate artery.

[Cardiotoxic effect of the tocolytic agent fenoterol (partusisten) in the neonate (author's transl)]. / Kardiotoxische Wirkung des Tokolytikums Fenoterol (Partusisten).

Forty-two children of mothers treated with beta-adrenergic drugs were investigated cardiologically during a period of 3 1/2 years. Eleven neonates were seen to suffer from severe toxic myocardiopathy associated with heart failure. The mothers had in part been given excessive fenoterol doses for 13 weeks on the average. One child died of regressive myocardial alterations as confirmed by autopsy. Suspicion of toxic myocardiopathy was suggested in another 16 children. Related to the very large number of mothers treated with tocolytic agents, fenoterol-induced myocardiopathy so far appears to be rare. In agreement with other reports, however, our observations suggest the possibility of severe, even perilous myocardial damage. Therefore, the indication and dosage of fenoterol should be subjected to more rigid criteria than so far applied.