Critical Congenital Heart Diseases Screening Using Pulse Oximetry

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of congenital heart disease varies from about 8-10 /1,000. Critical CHD, defined as requiring surgery or catheter-based intervention in the first year of life, occurs in approximately 25 percent of those with CHD. Therefore, it's necessary to diagnose children with critical CHD as soon as possible, and develop a treatment plan. This study aims to screen newborns in terms of critical CHD in the early postnatal period using the Masimo Radical-7® pulse oximeter as well as revealing the screening results of our hospital. METHODS: All newborns, hospitalized in our hospital, in the Maternity Ward, and the newborns over 34 weeks of gestational age, who had been screened between July 2015 and March 2016 were included in the study. A total of 623 newborns were screened. RESULTS: Of the 623 neonates screened, 298 (47.8%) were female. 29 neonates(4.7%) were unable to pass the screening. These 29 neonates underwent echocardiography within the first 24 hours. Six (20.6%) neonates, who failed this screening, were diagnosed with critical CHD according to the results of echocardiography. Only one of the 594 neonates was diagnosed with critical CHD. In this study, the Masimo Radical-7® device was found to have 85.7% sensitivity, 96.3% selectivity, and 20.7% and 99.8% of positive and negative predictive values respectively. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular malformations are a common type of congenital malformations. However, significant portion of these malformations cannot be detected by routine neonatal screening. In line with our study results, newborn pulse oximetry screening is suggested for early detection of CHD.

Keywords

• critical congenital heart disease
• pulse oximetry
• masimo radical-7®