Assessment of atrioventricular conduction by echocardiography and magnetocardiography in normal and anti-Ro/SSA-antibody-positive pregnancies

An intelligent quantification system for fetal heart rhythm assessment: A multicenter prospective study

BACKGROUND

The motion relationship and time intervals of the pulsed-wave Doppler (PWD) spectrum are essential for diagnosing fetal arrhythmia. However, few technologies currently are available to automatically calculate fetal cardiac time intervals (CTIs).

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to develop a fetal heart rhythm intelligent quantification system (HR-IQS) for the automatic extraction of CTIs and establish the normal reference range for fetal CTIs.

METHODS

A total of 6498 PWD spectrums of 2630 fetuses over the junction between the left ventricular inflow and outflow tracts were recorded across 14 centers. E, A, and V waves were manually labeled by 3 experienced fetal cardiologists, with 17 CTIs extracted. Five-fold cross-validation was performed for training and testing of the deep learning model. Agreement between the manual and HR-IQS-based values was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The Jarque-Bera test was applied to evaluate the normality of CTIs' distributions, and the normal reference range of 17 CTIs was established with quantile regression. Arrhythmia subset was compared with the non-arrhythmia subset using the Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS

Significant positive correlation (P <.001) and moderate-to-excellent consistency (P <.001) between the manual and HR-IQS automated measurements of CTIs was found. The distribution of CTIs was non-normal (P <.001). The normal range (2.5th to 97.5th percentiles) was successfully established for the 17 CTIs.

CONCLUSIONS

Using our HR-IQS is feasible for the automated calculation of CTIs in practice and thus could provide a promising tool for the assessment of fetal rhythm and function.

Use of Polynomial Reference Ranges for Atrioventricular Intervals Assessed by Fetal Echocardiography in Anti-Ro/SSA Antibody-Positive Pregnancies to Exclude Fetal Heart Blocks: A Pilot Study

INTRODUCTION

Maternal anti-Ro/SSA antibodies can cause fetal atrioventricular blocks (AVB). This pilot study aims to apply previously published echocardiographic reference ranges of the fetal atrioventricular (AV) intervals in the setting of anti-Ro/SSA antibody-positive pregnancies in order to exclude a 1° AVB.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Between January 2018 and September 2022, we included all women with known anti-Ro/SSA antibodies followed up at the prenatal ultrasound department of the University Hospital of Bern. AV intervals were serially measured by two previously reported methods and plotted against previously created reference ranges.

RESULTS

We included 23 pregnancies from 17 anti-Ro/SSA antibody-positive women with connective tissue diseases. 443 AV interval measurements were recorded between 16+3 and 38+4 weeks of gestation. 14 (3.2%) AV-intervals measured >150 ms, none measured >170 ms and 8 (1.8%) were found to be >95th percentile. In none of the pregnancies, serial AV-prolongations were noted. The postnatal electrocardiograms demonstrated normal sinus rhythm without AVB in all children.

CONCLUSION

AV intervals of pregnancies followed up for anti-Ro/SSA antibodies without neonatal AVB lie within our published polynomial reference ranges. While diagnosing a 1° AVB remains controversial, more data are needed to prove that our reference ranges are helpful exclude a 1° AVB.

Novel approaches to the surveillance and management of fetuses at risk for anti-Ro/SSA mediated atrioventricular block

Approximately one percent of pregnant women will produce anti-Sjogren's syndrome-related antigen A (anti-Ro/SSA) antibodies. Of these pregnancies, one to three percent will have a fetus that develops atrioventricular (AV) block. Earlier stages of AV block (1° or 2°) may respond to anti-inflammatory treatment, but complete (3°) AV block, which can occur within 24 hours of a normal fetal rhythm, is likely irreversible and carries substantial risk for significant morbidity and for mortality. Emerging data has shown that ambulatory fetal heart rhythm monitoring can detect the transition period from normal rhythm to 2° AV block, the time during which treatment with IVIG and dexamethasone can potentially restore normal sinus rhythm. Weekly or biweekly fetal echocardiograms occur too infrequently to detect this transition period but may still be useful in diagnosing extranodal anti-Ro antibody mediated cardiac disease. In this review, we evaluate the most innovative methods for surveillance and treatment of this disease.

Developments in pediatrics in 2020: choices in allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, ortopedics, respiratory tract illnesses and rheumatology

In this article, we describe the advances in the field of pediatrics that have been published in the Italian Journal of Pediatrics in 2020. We report progresses in understanding allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, orthopedics, respiratory tract illnesses, rheumatology in childhood.

Sparse Representation for Cardiac Electrical Activity Imaging in Magnetocardiography

Signal sparsity has been widely discussed in communication system, cloud computing, multimedia processing and computational biology. Reconstructing the sparsely distributed current sources of the heart by means of non-invasive magnetocardiography (MCG) measurement and various optimization methods provides a new way to solve the inverse problem of the cardiac magnetic field. The problem of sparse source location of MCG is in the time series of MCG measurement caused by active sparse current source, can the spatiotemporal source be reconstructed accurately and effectively? For the above problem, the scientific contributions of the paper include: (1) A modified focal underdetermined system solver algorithm is proposed for a sparse solution, by combing with dynamic regularization factor and smoothed sparse constraint; (2) Lead field matrix is reduced by prior information of cardiac magnetic field map to reduce under-determination; (3) Spatiotemporal sources are reconstructed for non-invasive cardiac electrical activity imaging. The results of real MCG data demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for cardiac electrical activity imaging. The temporal and spatial changes of the current sources are similar to the depolarization and repolarization process of the ventricle.

Reference ranges and Z-scores of atrioventricular and ventriculoatrial time intervals in normal fetuses

OBJECTIVE

To establish a reference range and compare differences among three methods, and then to construct Z-score reference ranges in normal fetuses from the three methods to provide an extra tool for fetal conduction time assessment.

METHODS

A total of 227 echocardiographic examinations were finally included. Fetal atrioventricular (AV) time and ventriculoatrial (VA) time intervals were measured by three methods: superior vena cava/ascending aorta (SVC/AAO), pulmonary artery/pulmonary vein (PA/PV) and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Regression analysis of the mean and standard deviation was performed to establish Z-scores.

RESULTS

With the three methods, positive correlations of intervals with gestational age (GA) and fetal heart rate (FHA) were observed, while intervals were negatively correlated with fetal heart rate (FHR). Correlations between VA/AV and GA, FHA and FHR were weak. The general trend of all intervals was towards an increase. In AV intervals, PA/PV revealed the longest mean AV time interval and SVC/AAO showed the shortest interval. In addition, PA/PV revealed the shortest VA interval.

CONCLUSION

This study presents not only the reference range of AV and VA intervals with the three methods but also the Z-score reference ranges for these indices against GA and FHA in normal fetuses. Each method has a different reference range, and appropriate application can facilitate diagnosis and treatment.

A review of fetal and neonatal consequences of maternal systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) primarily affects women of childbearing age and is commonly seen in pregnancy. The physiologic and immunologic changes of pregnancy may alter the course of SLE and impact maternal, fetal, and neonatal health. Multidisciplinary counseling before and during pregnancy from rheumatology, maternal fetal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatric cardiology is critical. Transplacental passage of autoantibodies, present in about 40% of women with SLE, can result in neonatal lupus (NL). NL can consist of usually permanent cardiac manifestations, including conduction system and myocardial disease, as well as transient cutaneous, hematologic, and hepatic manifestations. Additionally, women with SLE are more likely to develop adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, and preterm birth, perhaps due to an underlying effect on placentation. This review describes the impact of SLE on maternal and fetal health by trimester, beginning with prepregnancy optimization of maternal health. This is followed by a discussion of NL and the current understanding of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of anti-Ro/La mediated cardiac disease, as well as screening, treatment, and methods for prevention. Finally discussed is the known increase in preeclampsia and fetal growth issues in women with SLE that can lead to iatrogenic preterm delivery.

Keeping upbeat to prevent the heartbreak of anti-Ro/SSA pregnancy

Linked Comment: Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2019; 54: 87-95.