The benefits of prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects for babies have been debated. With the knowledge that earlier heart surgery is often better for a child’s development, investigators at Lurie Children’s have found that prenatally diagnosed babies born with critical heart disease had surgery on average one week sooner than those with postnatal diagnosis.
Surgery for babies with prenatally diagnosed noncritical cardiac defects occurred anywhere from two to 12 months sooner. The results were published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Quantifying the Importance of Prenatal Diagnosis for Infants with Congenital Heart Disease
They analyzed a cohort of 1,131 patients with congenital heart defects, aged 0-9 years, who received their initial cardiac surgery at Lurie Children’s between 2015 and 2021. Nearly half of these patients had the prenatal diagnosis.
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After accounting for demographics, comorbidities, and surgical complexity, the average age at surgery was significantly younger in infants with prenatally versus postnatally diagnosed critical and noncritical congenital heart disease().
Infants with one of the most common types of noncritical disease called atrial septal defects had surgery about a year sooner. For infants with critical disease especially, getting surgery a week earlier can make a big difference in the development of the brain and other organs.
This study shows that the best care for kids starts with prenatal diagnosis. More research is needed to identify and overcome the barriers to prenatal diagnosis().
These can include social barriers such as distance to care, lack of childcare, or inability to take time off from work. We need a better understanding of these factors to provide the highest quality care to babies born with cardiac defects, and their families.
References:
- Carlson, Laura M, and Neeta L Vora. Prenatal Diagnosis: Screening and Diagnostic Tools. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics of North America vol. 44,2 (2017): 245-256.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889854517300153?via%3Dihub)
- Bonnet, Damien. Impacts of prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart diseases on outcomes. Translational pediatrics vol. 10,8 (2021): 2241-2249.(https://tp.amegroups.org/article/view/58602/html)
- Joyce L. Woo et al. Association Between Prenatal Diagnosis and Age at Surgery for Noncritical and Critical Congenital Heart Defects. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2023.(https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.122.009638)
Source: Eurekalert
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