FETAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

MOST COMMON FINDINGS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Congenital cardiopathies or congenital heart disease (CHD) has a prevalence of about 0.8% of live births, being responsible for about 40% of perinatal deaths. Prenatal diagnosis of CHD can be performed using echocardiography, as this test has a sensitivity of 43% to 85% for visualization of the four cardiac chambers. OBJECTIVE: To define the most frequent findings of abnormalities among the heart diseases observed on fetal echocardiography, to establish the most frequent maternal age group in fetal echocardiography exams and to establish the frequency of the altered findings. METHODS: Retrospective, cross-sectional study that evaluated the importance of echocardiography for the early diagnosis of cardiac pathology in fetuses, as well as its prevalence in the results of 1701 reports of electronic medical records of patients who underwent fetal echocardiography at Clínica Fértile, in Goiânia, Goiás, between 01/01/2015 to 12/31/2019. The variables analyzed were the altered findings found, the maternal age and the frequency of each finding. RESULTS: The age group with the highest incidence of changes was 18 to 34 years old, the frequency of changes found was 8.3% and the most frequent change was interventricular communication and cardiomegaly, both with 16.2%. CONCLUSION: The frequency of altered findings according to the proposed study was 8.3%, the maternal age group with the largest number of changes on fetal echocardiographic examination was between 18 and 34 years old. The most frequent finding was without abnormalities. As for the most frequent findings of abnormalities, interventricular communication and cardiomegaly, were the most common findings.