New therapeutic aspects in nonimmune hydrops fetalis based on four hundred and two prenatally diagnosed cases

In 402 cases with prenatally diagnosed nonimmune hydrops fetalis, cardiovascular diseases were present in 18%, chromosomal disorders in 11%, and hematologic disorders of the fetus in 10%. In the last 3 years, fetal blood sampling has become a very important part of the differential diagnosis of nonimmune hydrops (chromosomal, hematologic and metabolic disorders, intrauterine infection). Also, transabdominal placental biopsy has been used for rapid karyotyping. A detailed fetal echocardiogram is absolutely necessary in all cases of nonimmune hydrops, in particular spectral and color Doppler flow mapping. Thus, congenital heart diseases can be accurately diagnosed. Further, in other causes of hydrops regurgitation of atrioventricular valves may be present in advanced stage. New important methods of intrauterine therapy are in particular: intravascular blood substitution in anemia, and the intravascular application of antiarrhythmic drugs in tachyarrhythmia. The overall survival rate was 19.4% (78 of 402); 4.0% (6 of 149) before 24 weeks of gestation, and 28.5% (72 of 253) after this age of gestation. The majority of survivors were in the tachyarrhythmia, hematologic disorder, isolated ascites and hydro-/chylothorax groups (53 of 78 survivors, 68%). In the other groups, the survival rate was generally low.