Congenital heart diseases detected by fetal echocardiography and the prevalence: A single center experience

Abstract

Aim: Fetal echocardiography is an effective screening tool for the detection of cardiac anomalies. The aim of this study is to evaluate risk groups of pregnant women, to determine congenital heart diseases in each group and to find the prevalence of cardiac anomalies in our region. Materials and Methods: All pregnant women referred for fetal echocardiography from January 2023 and September 2024 were included in the study. Results: A total of 387 pregnant women underwent fetal echocardiography of which 136 were low risk group and 251 were high risk group. The mean ages of patients were 27.43±1.37 and 28.54±5.45 years, respectively. Maternal diabetes (13.17%), dysrhythmia (5.42%) and history of previous child or fetus with extracardiac anomaly (8.53%) were the most common reasons for referral in the high-risk group. While ventricular septal defect was the most detected congenital heart disease in low risk group; hypoplastic left heart syndrome (1.20%) and pulmonary atresia/hypoplasia (1.20%) were the most detected cardiac anomalies in high risk group. The prevalence of congenital heart diseases in our series was found to be 2.94% and 6.37% in the low-risk and high-risk pregnancies respectively while the overall prevalence was 5.16%. Conclusion: Fetal echocardiography is a very useful technique when performed by experienced individuals with sufficient time. Dedicated cardiac screening should be part of the routine anomaly scan. Also, detailed fetal echocardiography should be performed in all pregnant women who were in low or high risk groups.