Research Article Atrioventricular Conduction Delay in the Second Trimester Measured by Fetal Magnetocardiography

Copyright © 2014 Annette Wacker-Gussmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Fetal AV block in SSA/Ro pregnancies is generally not seen before 18-week gestation and onset is rare after 28-week gestation. If complete AV block appears, it is believed to be irreversible. The purpose of the study was to evaluate precise electro-physiological AV conduction from 18-week gestation onwards. Patients and Methods. 21 fetuses of pregnant women with collagen vascular diseases were included in the study group and 59 healthy fetuses served as controls. In addition to fetal echocardiography, fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) was used to investigate precise electrophysiological fetal cardiac time intervals (fCTIs). Results