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Research Highlight: Screening Test for Heart Defects in Infants

• Some heart defects are not found in the first few days after birth, but they may become life threatening as the baby adjusts to life outside the womb.
• Many newborns go home within 48 hours. If signs of a heart defect appear a few days after birth, many of these babies will already be at home and their symptoms might not be noticed.
• One study found that 1 in 10 babies with a heart defect who died in the first year was not diagnosed before death. This rate rises to 1 in 4 for babies who died in the first week of life.
• A test, called pulse oximetry, might be used to screen newborns to find heart problems before they become life threatening. This simple test checks the amount of oxygen in the baby's body. Normal-term infants have oxygen levels within a narrow range. Babies with some types of heart defects have lower oxygen levels. This test might be used to quickly find infants with undiagnosed heart defects.
• The New York researchers studied the usefulness of the test. They screened 11,281 newborns and found 3 with a serious heart defect who did not have symptoms.
• Of the infants who screened positive, 75% had a heart defect. Nearly all of the babies who screened negative did not have a heart defect.
• These are promising results, and more study of this screening test is needed. If heart defects can be found early enough, treatment can begin earlier and possibly reduce the death rate.

Source: Koppel RI, Druschel CM, Carter T, Goldberg BE, Mehta PN, Talwar R, et al. Effectiveness of pulse oximetry screening for congenital heart disease in asymptomatic newborns. Pediatrics 2003;111(3):451–5.


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Date: March 11, 2009
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities