Outcome of prenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease: an update.

The objective of this study was to compare the outcome of prenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease (CHD) in a recent time period with previously reported experience. All cases of fetal CHD during the time period 1993 to 1999 were analyzed in terms of their outcome. During this time frame, 408 cases of fetal CHD were detected. Of these, 84% of mothers were referred because of suspicion of a cardiac anomaly during an obstetric scan. The mean gestational age at diagnosis was 26 weeks. Termination of pregnancy occurred in 98 cases. There were 92 deaths in the continuing pregnancies and a survival rate of 60%. The detection rate of CHD prenatally continues to increase as obstetric screening for cardiac malformations becomes more widespread. Diagnostic categories continue to be skewed toward more complex forms of malformation, although comparisons with previous studies show some trends. In particular, there are proportionately fewer pregnancies with extracardiac malformations. In addition, the outcome in continuing pregnancies is substantially improved from previous reports.