Prevalence of Suspected Congenital Cardiac Disease Using Pulse Oxymeter: A Descriptive Observational Study from Maharashtra.

Abstract

Background: Pulse oximetry has been proposed as screening method for the detection of congenital heart defects. It is a simple, non-invasive investigation which measures the percentage of haemoglobin in blood that is saturated with oxygen. It is proposed that the measurement of oxygen saturation identifies infants with mild cyanosis who do not have an audible murmur or other signs of cardiac abnormality and are not detected by routine clinical examination.

Objectives: To find out the prevalence of suspected congenital cardiac disease using pulse oxymeter.

Methodology: Present descriptive observational study was carried out at Department of paediatrics at tertiary care centre including newborns born at our hospital.

Results: We included total 100 new-borns in our study fulfilling the eligibility criteria. Majority of them were 49-72 hours of age i.e. 85%. Majority of the babies in our study were males i.e. 61%. Remaining were females i.e., 39%. We carried out screening of all new-borns as mentioned in methodology using pulse oximeter. It revealed fail test in 4 new-borns. So, the prevalence of CHD in our study by using pulse oximetry as screening tool was 4%.

Conclusion: Prevalence of CHD in our study by using pulse oximetry as screening tool was 4%. Pulse oximetry is a safe, non-invasive, inexpensive, excellent detection rate and reasonably sensitive test that will detect many cases of CCHD.