Pulse oximetry as a screening test for congenital heart disease in newborns
, y | 20 jul 2022
Article Category: Original articles
Publicado en línea: 20 jul 2022
Páginas: 1 - 9
Recibido: 27 nov 2021
Aceptado: 22 abr 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34763/jmotherandchild.20222601.d-21-00033
Palabras clave
© 2022 Dalwinder Janjua et. al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Background
Congenital heart disease (CHD) can be fatal if not diagnosed at the early phases of life. Available diagnostic tools for screening critical CHD are mostly invasive and costly.
Aim
The current study aimed to validate the use of pulse oximetry as a non-invasive and cost-effective tool to screen critical CHD.
Material and methods
This observational study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching institute. A total of 1,082 asymptomatic term neonates (aged 2–24 h) were screened by pulse oximetry and clinical examination for the detection of critical CHD. Neonates with abnormal pulse oximetry and clinical examination findings were subjected to confirm the presence of CHD.
Results
The incidence of critical CHD in asymptomatic newborns was found to be 0.5% (5/1000 live births). Echocardiography confirmed five cases of critical CHD. Pulse oximetry alone could detect 80%, and clinical examination alone could detect 60% of the CHD cases, while combining both methods gave 100% detection rate.
Conclusion
Pulse oximetry is a simple, cost-effective, and reliable tool to diagnose critical CHD. In majority of the newborns who have not undergone fetal echocardiography, the underlying critical CHD can be missed, and in such cases, pulse oximetry screening offers an effective way to minimise the undiagnosed discharge risk.