Detection and careful stratification of fetal heart rate (FHR) is extremely important in all pregnancies. The most lethal cardiac rhythm disturbances occur during apparently normal pregnancies where FHR and rhythmare regular and within normal or low-normal ranges. These hidden depolarization and repolarization abnormalities, associated with genetic ion channelopathies cannot be detected by echocardiography, and may be responsible for up to 10% of unexplained fetal demise, prompting a need for newer and better fetal diagnostic techniques. Other manifest fetal arrhythmias such as premature beats, tachycardia, and bradycardia are commonly recognized. Heart rhythm diagnosis in obstetrical practice is usually made by M-mode and pulsed Doppler fetal echocardiography, but not all fetal cardiac time intervals are captured by echocardiographic methods. This article reviews different types of fetal arrhythmias, their presentation and treatment strategies, and gives an overview of the present and future diagnostic techniques.

Habituation--the most basic form of learning--is used to evaluate central nervous system (CNS) maturation and to detect abnormalities in fetal brain development. In the current study, habituation, stimulus specificity and dishabituation of auditory evoked responses were measured in fetuses and newborns using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG). An auditory habituation paradigm consisting of 100 trains of five 500 Hz tones, one 750 Hz tone (dishabituator) and two more 500 Hz tones, respectively, were presented to 41 fetuses (gestational age 30-39 weeks) and 22 newborns or babies (age 6-89 days). A response decrement between the first and fifth tones (habituation), an increment between the fifth tone and the dishabituator (stimulus specificity) and an increment between the fifth (last tone before the dishabituator) and seventh tones (first tone after the dishabituator) (dishabituation) were expected. Fetuses showed weak responses to the first tone. However, a significant response decrement between the second and fifth tones (habituation) and a significant increment between the fifth tone and the dishabituator (stimulus specificity) were found. No significant difference was found for dishabituation nor was a developmental trend found at the group level. From the neonatal data, significant values for stimulus specificity were found. Sensory fatigue or adaptation was ruled out as a reason for the response decrement due to the strong reactions to the dishabituator. Taken together, the current study used fMEG to directly show fetal habituation and provides evidence of fetal learning in the last trimester of pregnancy.

CHr seems to be a suitable marker for latent ID in preterm infants at 3-4 months corrected age and may be superior to ferritin, TS and MCV.

Numerosity discrimination has been demonstrated in newborns, but not in fetuses. Fetal magnetoencephalography allows non-invasive investigation of neural responses in neonates and fetuses. During an oddball paradigm with auditory sequences differing in numerosity, evoked responses were recorded and mismatch responses were quantified as an indicator for auditory discrimination. Thirty pregnant women with healthy fetuses (last trimester) and 30 healthy term neonates participated. Fourteen adults were included as a control group. Based on measurements eligible for analysis, all adults, all neonates, and 74% of fetuses showed numerical mismatch responses. Numerosity discrimination appears to exist in the last trimester of pregnancy.

CIN in patients with creatinine within the upper normal range is significantly more frequent after intraarterial than after IV contrast administration. In these patients, renal impairment after contrast administration is independently predicted by cystatin C and cystatin C/creatinine-ratio, whereas BUN and creatinine were not predictive.

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Although limited and preclinical in its use, fECG (Monica Healthcare System) could be an additional useful tool to detect precise fCTIs from 32 weeks' gestational age onwards.

Cardiotocography and echocardiography are currently standard for fetal heart monitoring. However, both do not provide adequate temporal resolution to measure fetal cardiac time intervals and detect arrhythmias, which can occur during normal sinus rhythm. Fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) is a non-invasive technique measuring magnetic signals generated by fetal heart activity. Most fMCG devices are installed in research institutions limiting the implementation of this method in a clinical setting. Several institutions made a step forward by installing devices, in particular for fetal investigations, in hospital sites to evaluate the clinical benefit. Based on instrumentation differences which can affect signal quality, there is still no established reference database for fetal cardiac time intervals. A new magnetograph dedicated to fetal recordings was implemented with improved patient comfort. The setting was optimized to establish a standard. A total of 103 healthy fetuses starting as early as possible after the first trimester were recorded and fMCG values of cardiac time intervals were compared to former studies. Data allowed high and reliable detection for all fMCG components starting at 17 weeks. The data were comparable to fMCG multicenter studies, fetal electrocardiography and neonatal ECG results and could serve as a database of norm values for further investigation of fetal arrhythmias.