A Review Study on the Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease Using Fetal Echocardiography

Abstract

Congenital heart defect (CHD) is the most common type of congenital malformation in live births with a wide and variable spectrum in each population. The prevalence of this malformation is reported to be 8 cases per 1,000 live births. The CHD is also accompanied by multiple complications, such as prematurity, low birth weight, termination of pregnancy, mortality, and morbidity. The concomitant of this defect with extra-cardiac anomalies result in the enhancement of mortality and morbidity. Due to the importance of CHD and role of genetic and environmental factors on CHD, prenatal diagnosis is an issue of fundamental importance. The prenatal diagnosis increases the survival rate and reduces complications, mortality, and morbidity. Fetal echocardiography as a non-invasive and safe method enables the pediatric cardiologists to diagnose CHD prenatally with high sensitivity and specificity. Regarding this, the present study was conducted with the aim of reviewing the literature on the prenatal diagnosis of CHD using fetal echocardiography. Based on the reviewed studies, the role of fetal echocardiography and its indications were defined. Accordingly, fetal echocardiography was suggested as a profitable method for the prenatal diagnosis of CHDs even in the low-risk pregnancies.