Critical congenital heart disease screening by pulse oximetry in a neonatal intensive care unit. Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association

Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening is effective in asymptomatic late preterm and term newborn infants with a low false positive rate (0.035%). Objective—(1) To compare 2817 NICU discharges before and after implementation of CCHD screening; and (2) to evaluate CCHD screening at < 35 weeks gestation. Methods—collection of results of CCHD screening including preductal and postductal SpO2 values. Results—During the pre-CCHD screen period, 1247 infants were discharged from the NICU and one case of CCHD was missed. After 3/1/12, 1508 CCHD screens were performed among 1570 discharges and no CCHDs were missed. The preductal and postductal SpO2 values were 98.8±1.4 % and 99±1.3 % respectively in preterm and 98.9±1.3 % and 98.9±1.4 % in term infants. Ten infants had false positive screens (10/1508=0.66%). Conclusions—Performing universal screening in the NICU is feasible but is associated with a higher false positive rate compared to asymptomatic newborn infants. Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#term