Prenatal Detection of Congenital Heart Disease by Routine Fetal Echocardiography in Consecutive Pregnancies

Objectives

Early prenatal detection of congenital heart disease (CHD) using fetal echocardiography (FE) facilitates comprehensive prenatal evaluation, multidisciplinary perinatal planning, and timely postnatal management, improving outcomes. This study assessed FE for detecting major and complex CHD and identified cases that would have been missed using a risk-based referral strategy. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based prospective observational study was undertaken at a tertiary care teaching institution from June 2023 to January 2024. A total of 120 pregnant women between 15 and 35 weeks of gestation underwent FE irrespective of maternal or fetal risk factors. All live-born neonates underwent postnatal transthoracic echocardiography, which served as the reference standard for diagnostic accuracy.