Abstract
Background. The discovery of ultrasound has made a revolution in almost all fields of medicine. The past three decades have withessed an intensive development of fetal echocardiography methods and technique. The aim of the paper is to present a review of the results and trends of the last 10 years of fetal echocardiography in Lithuania and to show the spectrum and outcomes of prenatally detected congenital heart diseases.
Materials and methods. Fetal echocardiography was performed for 1816 fetuses during the period from 1999 to 2009.
Results. Cardiac pathology was diagnosed in 176 (9.7%) fetuses. Heart defects were detected in 112 (63.6%) of them, cardiac rhythm and conduction disturbances in 62 (35.2%), cardiomyopathy in 2 (1.1%) fetuses, and heart rhabdomyoma in 1 (0.6%) fetus. The general rate of the postnatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects in Lithuania was about 10%. Most of fetal cardiac diseases (70.5%) were diagnosed after 22 weeks of gestation. Because most of antenatally diagnosed congenital heart defects (74%) were critical and inconsistent with life, a large part of newborns (40.2%) died in the neonatal period, 10.7% of fetuses died in utero, and 8% of pregnancies were terminated by abortion. The data demonstrate good tendencies: the diagnosis has become earlier, a wider spectrum of diseases have been diagnosed, more newborns have survived. Our survey shows that 41.1% of newborns with prenatally diagnosed congenital heart defects have survived.
Conclusions. 10% of severe congenital heart diseases are detected prenatally in Lithuania. The efficacy of antenatal diagnostics depends on the qualification of specialists, the number of tertiary care centers, on a successful collaboration among pediatric cardiologists, obstetricians and geneticists. The main problem is an insufficient preparation of obstetricians, the uncertified favor of pediatric cardiologist.
Keywords: congenital heart disease, fetal echocardiography, antenatal diagnostics
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
-
Saulius CICĖNAS,
Vladislavas VENCEVIČIUS,
Malignant pulmonary neoplasms predisposing to pneumothorax
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 18 No. 2 (2011)
-
Andrius Brazaitis,
Algirdas Tamošiūnas,
Janina Tutkuvienė,
Patellofemoral joint biomechanics in the females with anterior knee pain applying full weight bearing kinematic MRI
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 22 No. 1 (2015)
-
Ilona Savlan,
Valentina Liakina,
Jonas Valantinas,
Value of computerized inhibitory control test and blood tests in minimal hepatic encephalopathy diagnosis
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 20 No. 3 (2013)
-
Vygantas Barsys,
Vida Garalienė,
Gediminas Urbonas,
Contraction force versus action potential duration of cardiomyocytes: which methodology is more informative for selection of effective 1,4-dihydropyridine compounds in experimental research?
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 22 No. 1 (2015)
-
Darius KAZANAVIČIUS,
Narimantas Evaldas SAMALAVIČIUS,
Iatrogenic colonoscopic perforations: a review of 8 158 patients
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 1 (2012)
-
Andrej Suchomlinov,
Janina Tutkuvienė,
Growth tendencies of the “generation of independence”: the relation between socioeconomic factors and growth indices
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 20 No. 1 (2013)
-
Jean-Michel Arnal,
How to implement NIV in the ICU?
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 3 (2012)
-
Rimantas Jankauskas,
Table of Contents and Editorial Board
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 30 No. 1 (2023): Acta medica Lituanica
-
Rimantas Jankauskas,
Editorial Board and Table of Contents
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 28 No. 2 (2021): Acta medica Lituanica
-
Rimantas Jankauskas,
Bibliographic Data
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 28 No. 1 (2021): Acta medica Lituanica