Prenatal cardiology

Czech version

Authors: Tomek Viktor
Authors‘ workplace: Dětské kardiocentrum, 2. lékařská fakulta, Univerzita Karlova a FN v Motole, Praha
Published in: Čes-slov Pediat 2024; 79 (1): 9-16.
Category:
doi: https://doi.org/10.55095/CSPediatrie2024/001

Overview

Prenatal cardiology is a subspecialty of pediatric cardiology focused mainly on the diagnosis and treatment of heart lesions, predominantly congenital heart defects. A nationwide prenatal detection of major congenital heart defects in the Czech Republic exceeded 80 % in the current era. Termination of pregnancy of major heart defects has decreased from 70 % in 1991 to 43 % in 2023 but remains high in fetuses with univentricular heart and those major heart defects with associated comorbidities. The introduction of first trimester screening resulted in higher termination rate at early stage but did not revert the overall decreasing trend in termination of pregnancy. In cardiac abnormalities with favorable outcome, the termination rate decreased significantly, becoming rather exceptional in recent years. This review focuses on advances in prenatal detection of heart anomalies and treatment of arrhythmias and some specific heart defects that are increasingly used in clinical practice.

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