Neurological outcome of children who were treated for fetal tachycardia complicated by hydrops.

OBJECTIVE

Fetal tachycardia is a condition associated with congestive heart failure and development of fetal hydrops, which may result in neurological morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term outcome of hydropic fetuses.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study on cognitive and neurological functioning of 11 infants, aged 6 months to 12 years, who experienced fetal tachycardia complicated by hydrops.

RESULTS

Seven fetuses had supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), three had atrial flutter (AF) and one had ventricular tachycardia (VT). Nine fetuses converted to sinus rhythm within a mean time of 8.2 days of presentation; resolution of hydrops was achieved in six of these patients in a mean time of 8.8 days. Mean gestational age (GA) at birth was 35 + 4 weeks. Neonatal cranial ultrasound was normal in seven infants and all but one of these were normal at follow-up: one infant who initially had no abnormalities developed multiple cerebral lesions as a result of a malignant long QT syndrome (LQTS) and died at the age of 2 years. Three infants had periventricular echogenicity (PVE) on neonatal cranial ultrasound, associated with a pseudocyst in one infant. The remaining infant showed a parenchymal hemorrhage of antenatal onset, seen as a porencephalic cyst at birth. One of these infants was normal at follow-up, one died 2 days after birth and two infants had neurological abnormalities at follow-up, consisting of mild hemiplegia with normal cognitive function in one, and a cognitive developmental delay in the other.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, neurological outcome was good in eight out of 11 infants. Initiation of therapy should not be withheld or delayed on the assumption of poor neurological outcome.