Prenatal Detection of Congenital Heart Diseases: One-Year Survey Performing a Screening Protocol in a Single Reference Center in Brazil

Objective . To describe the experience of a tertiary center in Brazil to which patients are referred whose fetuses are at increased risk for congenital heart diseases (CHDs). Methods . This was a cross-sectional observational study. The data was collected prospectively, during the year 2012, through a screening protocol of the fetal heart adapted from the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG) guideline. We performed a fetal echocardiogram screening for all pregnant women who were referred to the fetal cardiology outpatient obstetrics clinic of a university hospital. The exams were classified as normal or abnormal. The cases considered abnormal were undergone to a postnatal echocardiogram. We categorized the abnormal fetal heart according to severity in “complex,” “significant,” “minor,” and “others.” Results . We performed 271 fetal heart screening. The incidence of abnormal screenings was 9.96% (27 fetuses). The structural CHD when categorized due to severity showed 48.1% ( n = 13) of “complex” cases, 18.5% ( n = 5) “significant” cases, and 7.4% ( n = 2) “minor” cases. The most common referral reason was by maternal causes (67%) followed by fetal causes (33%). The main referral indication was maternal metabolic disease (30%), but there was just one fetus with CHD in such cases (1.2%). CHDs were found in 19/29 fetuses with suspicion of some cardiac abnormality by obstetrician (65.5%). Conclusion . We observed a high rate of CHD in our population. We also found that there was higher incidence of complex cases.