Analysis of heart rhythm disturbances in fetuses

Abstract

Analysis of heart rhythm distrubances V.Tomek Abstract Objective: The dissertation was focused on prenatal cardiology. Prenatal cardiology is a relatively young field, which is focused on diagnosis and treatment of fetal heart. In the thesis, I focused on the issue of cardiac arrhythmias: pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapeutic management of prenatally heart rhythm disturbances. The most frequent type of prenatal arrhythmias are fetal isolated complete atrioventricular (AV) block and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Although these rhythm heart disorders are relatively rare, but can lead to heart failure and are important causes of fetal mortality. Methods: We performed measurement of mechanical atrioventricular conduction time intervals in human foetuses assessed by Doppler echocardiography and provided reference values. We compared reference values with foetuses of mothers with anti-SSA Ro/SSB La autoantibodies, being in risk of isolated congenital heart block development. We collaborated in a multinational, multicenter retrospective study of 175 fetuses diagnosed with AV block (2000 -2007) to analyse the influence of the treatment. We compared 2 treatment protocols (Prague and London) to find out the optimal treatment strategy of fetuses with supraventricular tachycardia. The severity of heart..