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)
-
Arūnas Gelmanas,
Tomas Bukauskas,
Andrius Macas,
Giedrė Žarskienė,
Ainius Žarskus,
Postoperative cognitive dysfunction in geriatric patients after orthopedic surgery
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 3 (2012)
-
Liubov KAVALIAUSKIENĖ,
Rimantas PEČIŪRA,
Virginija ADOMAITIENĖ,
Trends in depression diagnosis and consumption of antidepressants in Lithuania in 2004–2009
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 18 No. 1 (2011)
-
Irma Kalibataitė,
Vilius Rutkauskas,
Eglė Preikšaitienė,
Vaidutis Kučinskas,
Establishing genetic diagnosis of intellectual disability in children: diagnostic yield of various genetic approaches
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 4 (2012)
-
Jolanta Dadonienė,
Alma Čypienė,
Egidija Rinkūnienė,
Jolita Badarienė,
Jelizaveta Burca,
Ieva Sakaitė,
Goda Kalinauskaitė,
Vaiva Kumpauskaitė,
Aleksandras Laucevičius,
Association between vitamin D and bone mineral density in post-menopausal women with metabolic syndrome
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 22 No. 1 (2015)
-
Skirmantė Rusonienė,
Violeta Panavienė,
Audronė Eidukaitė,
Marija Jakutovič,
Proinflammatory S100 proteins as clinical markers of juvenile idiopathic arthritis
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 21 No. 3 (2014)
-
Ilona Šuškevičienė,
Danguolė ČeslavaRugytė,
Tomas Bukauskas,
Alina Vilkė,
Diana Bilskienė,
Andrius Macas,
Near-infrared spectroscopy in newborns and infants under general anesthesia
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 3 (2012)
-
Violeta Labžentytė,
Silvija Zemnickienė,
Edvardas Danila,
Virginija Šileikienė,
Rolandas Zablockis,
Vygantas Gruslys,
A fast and fatal course of bronchiectasis: an unusual rare expression of chronic graft versus host disease. A case report
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 23 No. 1 (2016)
-
Rimantas Jankauskas,
Editorial Board and Table of Contents
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 28 No. 1 (2021): Acta medica Lituanica
-
Rimantas Jankauskas,
Editorial Board and Table of Contents
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 27 No. 2 (2020): Acta medica Lituanica
-
Arvydas Baranauskas,
Vilhelmas Bajoras,
Povilas Budrys,
Aleksandras Laucevičius,
Giedrius Davidavičius,
FFR guided PCI on long coronary lesions: 2-year clinical results with 2nd or newer generation DES
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 23 No. 1 (2016)