Fetal Anomaly Screening for Detection of Congenital Heart Defects

Abstract

Congenital heart defects remain the most common congenital malformation in live births and are the leading cause of infant mortality in the developed world. Major developments in the management over the last decade have led to significant improvements in survival of infants with congenital heart defects. Early diagnosis and timely appropriate management of critical and serious CHDs is essential to improve outcome. Feat anomaly screening is being used detect the critical and significant congenital heart defects prenatally between 18+0 weeks and 20+6 weeks of pregnancy. This helps professional and parents in critical decision making regarding the pregnancy, planning for delivery and preparing the parents for the anticipated problems. Prenatal diagnosis of critical congenital heart conditions has shown to improve the outcome in infants with critical congenital heart defects.