© 2002 Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal and Neonatal Edition
EDITORIAL
Heart disease
Prenatal diagnosis of structural heart disease: does it make a difference to survival?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Ian D Sullivan, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London WC1N 3JH, UK;
sullii@gosh.nhs.uk
Is there a survival advantage conferred by the prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease?
Keywords: fetal echocardiography; prenatal congenital heart disease
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
There are two potential advantages of mid trimester diagnosis of fetal heart disease. Perinatal management in an environment where the appropriate expertise is available and prepared might result in improved outcomes after intervention in the newborn period in situations where this is required. Alternatively, prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease allows consideration of termination of pregnancy. Termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly is an emotive subject and has a wide range of acceptability in different societal contexts. Nearly 20% of all pregnancies in the UK were terminated for social indications in 1994 whereas the proportion in which the indication for termination was detection of fetal cardiac abnormality was about 0.02%.1
If there is a survival advantage conferred by the prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease, its demonstration has been elusive. The spectrum of heart abnormalities diagnosed prenatally differs from that seen in postnatal practice. Complex cardiac abnormalities, associated
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