Press releases

Released June 2, 1997
Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital news release

Yale-New Haven Study Finds Fetal Heart Monitoring Improves Survival

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Congenital heart problems discovered through the use of prenatal ultrasound help to improve a baby's chance of survival, according to doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale University School of Medicine

Prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease allows doctors to prepare for the delivery of a newborn with heart disease, which increases the chances for survival, the physicians report in the October edition of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Heart disease is the most common fatal congenital abnormality in the first year after birth," said Dr. Joshua A. Copel, chief of perinatology at Yale-New Haven Hospital and professor of OB/GYN at Yale School of Medicine, who led the study. "If we use an ultrasound to evaluate the fetal heart and know before the baby is born that there is a problem, we can be prepared to correct the problem soon after the mother gives birth."

The five-year study reviewed the cases of 99 babies who had significant heart disease, but no other life-threatening abnormalities which would require surgery. About half of the cases involved prenatal diagnosis, with the balance of the study reviewing babies who were diagnosed with heart disease after birth. Most often surgery was used for babies with blockages in one of the ventricles of the heart, which maintain normal blood flow and blood pressure. Babies born at Yale-New Haven Hospital were studied and survival was better for babies diagnosed in advance of birth, a 96 percent survival rate.

Yale-New Haven also reviewed cost factors involved with prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. While costs involved for hospitalization were lower, researchers found that a multicenter study of the issue is necessary before any final determination of the cost/benefit ratio of prenatal cardiac diagnosis can be made

Yale-New Haven Hospital pioneered monitoring fetal heart activity in 1957, when the first fetal heart monitoring equipment was developed by doctors at Yale University School of Medicine. The world's first Fetal Cardiovascular Center opened at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1985.

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