Accuracy of prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects

Objectives: (1) To evaluate the detection and accuracy of fetal echocardiog raphy for congenital heart defects (CHD). (2) To compare the detection and accuracy of a team of maternal fetal medicine specialists and radiologists (MFM/R) with those of perinatal cardiologists (PC). Methods: All fetal echo cardiograms performed from 1/91 to 6/95 were reviewed retrospectively. CHD diagnoses made prenatally were compared with postnatally-confirmed diagnose s. Results: 106 heat defects were correctly detected prenatally. There were 10 incorrect diagnoses, 6 false-negatives and 4 false-positives. Overall d etection rate (sensitivity) was 95%, while overall accuracy was 87%. Detect ion rate for MFM/R and PC were 91 and 97%, respectively (p = 0.4). Accuracy was 74% for MFM/R and 92% for PC (p = 0.02). Conclusions: CHD can be ident ified reliably by prenatal echocardiography. The involvement of a PC in the prenatal diagnosis of these defects may improve diagnostic accuracy. Copyr ight (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.