Materials and Methods:
A retrospective study was conducted at the Prenatal Diagnostic and
Intervention center in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at
Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research
(JIPMER), a tertiary referral Institute of National Importance in
Puducherry, South India, from June 2016 to July 2022. During the
hospital visit, patients are required to sign a form granting consent
for the analysis of their pregnancy data for scientific purposes, in
accordance with the existing ethical guidelines. As this study involved
a retrospective review of data collected for clinical purposes, formal
approval from an ethics committee was not sought. A total of 55 cases of
reported intermittent or sustained fetal arrhythmias were identified
during the study period of 7 years, with review of the medial records
and Fetal Echocardiography images and cine-loops. The cases of
non-sustained rhythm abnormalities were excluded and the 40 cases with
sustained rhythm abnormalities were included in the study. Pregnancy and
cardiac outcomes were acquired from the system data base and case files.
The analysis involved the examination of fetal arrhythmia types,
clinical characteristics, and outcomes, as well as outlining a
management approach. Fetal arrhythmias were categorized into irregular
rhythms, tachyarrhythmia, and bradyarrhythmia, with
definitions5 provided in Table 1 . A fetal
medicine expert re-evaluated the images and cine loops to confirm and
assign final diagnoses. The study utilized detailed transabdominal fetal
echocardiography, performed by a single professional using the Voluson
E8 from General Electronics. M-mode and Doppler studies complemented 2-D
assessments. Management decisions were made considering gestational
period, type, and severity of rhythm disturbance, and the presence of
structural abnormalities. Descriptive analysis was presented for
numerical variables as mean, standard deviation, or median, while
categorical variables were expressed in numbers and percentages. Due to
the small sample size, statistical and multivariate analyses were not
conducted.