There is a difference in diagnosis between low risk pregnancies where mothers do not have (or are not aware of) any autoimmune disease, and the high risk ones where mothers are known to have a specific autoimmune disease and / or are positive to anti Ro/La autoanitbodies and / or had a<unk> -affected pregnancy previously. In low risk pregnancies, testing the mothers' serum is not part of the routine prenatal tests. Therefore, the<unk>  is usually diagnosed during a routine obstetrical ultra sound. The first symptom in most cases is a slow heart rate which can be detected using fetal echocardiogram and Doppler ultra sound techniques between the weeks 18 - 30. The Doppler is very important to assess the level of AV<unk>  as well as to check for other cardiac structural abnormalities that might be associated with<unk>  such as left atrial isomerism, valvular damages and big arteries inversion, while the echocardiogram is useful to detect other complications such as the hydrops fetalis. In the absence of cardiac structural diseases, the second step to confirm the diagnosis is to test the serum of the mother for anti Ro/La autoantibodies using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In high risk pregnancies, the diagnosis is relatively easier as fetal and maternal screenings are part of the routine monitoring of the pregnancy.
Congenital heart block
Ectopic pacemaker
Cyanotic heart defect
Acyanotic heart defect
Cardiac myxoma
Heart valve dysplasia
Primary tumors of the heart
Broken Heart