Paediatric arrhythmias

With the rise in pre- and post-natal screening, different arrhythmias that used to be underdiagnosed in children are increasingly exposed at an earlier age. Most of them are benign, but a careful and extensive evaluation is necessary to ensure adequate diagnosis and management.

These arrhythmias can be due to anomalies in the generation of electrical impulses (automaticity), alterations in the conduction of electrical activity through the heart (such as heart block conduction delays or either fixed or functional “reentry” circuits) or due to abnormal influence of the autonomic nervous system in heart rhythm.