Use of high-frame rate imaging and doppler tissue echocardiography in the diagnosis of fetal ventricular tachycardia.

Ventricular tachycardia has rarely been diagnosed in the fetus. We describe a 31-week-old fetus with ventricular tachycardia and severely depressed ventricular function. M-mode and 2-dimensional Doppler tissue echocardiography were used in this study to assess the nature of the arrhythmia. The complete atrioventricular dissociation inherent to the diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia was particularly easy to detect with M-mode Doppler tissue echocardiography. Moreover, the onset and the pattern of propagation of the ventricular arrhythmia could be easily identified with 2-dimensional Doppler tissue echocardiography. Doppler tissue echocardiography facilitates the diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia and adds new information that is not available by other techniques.