Neonatal Lupus: All fetal bradycardia may not be fetal distress

Dharmagat Bhattarai; Sandesh Guleria; Nameirakpam Johnson; Sanjeev Naganur; Deepti Suri

Volume : IX, Issue : IV, April - 2020

Neonatal Lupus: All fetal bradycardia may not be fetal distress

Dharmagat Bhattarai, Sandesh Guleria, Nameirakpam Johnson, Sanjeev Naganur, Deepti Suri

Abstract :

Neonatal lupus is an autoimmune disease due to passive transfer of maternal autoantibodies during fetal life. It manifests with cardiac defects like congenital heart block along with associated lesions like cutaneous rash, hematological disorders and transaminitis. Congenital heart block is one of the predominant and alarming manifestation of neonatal lupus. Since it is an irreversible injury to fetus, only way to prevent the devastating consequences is to detect maternal rheumatological conditions before or at early pregnancy. In addition to this, detection of this disorder may help to distinguish the low fetal heart rate due to fetal distress or congenital heart block. We present a clinical ief with viewpoint to highlight the importance of detection of this disease in antenatal period.