Pulse Oximetry Screening for Detection of Critical Congenital Heart Defects at an Altitude of 5400 Feet at a Tertiary Care Center in New Mexico

Abstract

Purpose: Universal newborn pulse oximetry screening to detect critical congenital heart disease (CHD) has become the standard of care in the United States. Using the newborn pulse oximetry screening protocol recommended by the Secretary';s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Heart Association, we sought to determine the false positive rate at moderate altitude, which we hypothesized would be considerably higher than that recorded at sea level. Methods: Data was collected retrospectively from July 2012 to October 2013. Infants with a gestational age of at least 36 weeks and weighing …