Romano-Ward syndrome diagnosed as moderate fetal bradycardia. A case report

Romano-Ward syndrome is a rare, autosomal-dominant cardiac conduction defect associated with syncope and life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia in children and adults.

A fetus was noted to have moderate fetal bradycardia in the antenatal period. When studied postnatally, the child was found to have Romano-Ward syndrome.

This is the first reported case of Romano-Ward syndrome diagnosed prenatally as fetal bradycardia. This report confirms that moderate fetal bradycardia does not indicate fetal distress, but it does indicate that fetuses should be studied for cardiac conduction defects in the neonatal period.