[Diagnosis and antenatal treatment of fetal arrhythmias]

Fetal cardiac arrhythmias are detected with increasing frequency. They may range from benign ectopy to life-threatening arrhythmias. Most centers prefer to administer an antiarrhythmic drug therapy via maternal ingestion and only in specific cases via direct fetal intravascular injection. The medical drug treatment of choice at various centers of fetal tachyarrhythmias include digoxin, flecainide, amiodarone, verapamil and a host of combinations, as well as sotalol. Atrioventricular block, especially in the presence of maternal SS-A and SS-B autoantibodies, can be treated with Dexamethason and partly with Salbutamol, within international study protocols.