Background: In response to increasing demand for a more sophisticated newborn baby health examination, we designed and performed echocardiographic screenings on a voluntary and self-paid basis.
Methods: From 1997 to 2005, 10,000 newborn babies had received the echocardiographic examination on the next day after birth. The echocardiographic examinations were performed by a single sonographer.
Results: As well as physically patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) (2420 cases), and patent foramen ovale (PFO) (5813 cases), we also found atrial septal defect (ASD) (161 cases), muscular-type ventricular septal defect (VSD) (123 cases), perimembranous type VSD (58 cases), coarctation of the aorta (COA) (1 case), pulmonic stenosis (PS) (1 case), peripheral pulmonic stenosis (PPS) (15 cases), common atrioventricular canal (CAVC) (1 case), transposition of the great arteries (TGA) (3 cases), double outlets of the right ventricle (DORV) (2 cases), tetralogy of Fallot (TF) (2 cases), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (2 cases), dextrocardia (2 cases) and cardiac tumor (2 cases).
Conclusions: Newborn echocardiographic screening enables pediatricians to detect abnormal cardiac findings early and accurately, especially heart diseases without murmur such as COA, ASD, CAVC, dextrocardia, small muscular VSD, small PDA, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cardiac tumor. In addition, cardiopulmonary information obtained from the echocardiographic examination can be useful for neonatal care providers.