Perinatal outcomes of pregnancies with prenatally diagnosed foetal congenital heart disease

We aimed to assess the types of prenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease (CHD) and their association with structural and chromosomal abnormalities and to evaluate the perinatal outcomes according to the type of the heart defect. We retrospectively reviewed 377 pregnancies with prenatally diagnosed CHD. The main outcome measure was to evaluate the pregnancy outcomes of CHD according to the type of the heart defect and associated structural or chromosomal abnormalities. Of 377 foetuses with major structural CHD, 214 (56.8%) were isolated, 49 (13%) had additional cardiac anomalies, 58 (15.4%) had extracardiac malformations with normal karyotype and 56 (14.9%) had chromosomal abnormalities. The most common chromosomal abnormality was trisomy 21 (55.4%). Prenatal detection of CHD allows early workup to identify chromosomal abnormalities and detailed anatomic evaluation of extracardiac malformations. Prognostication of each heart defect at diagnosis and facilitating patients with isolated surgically correctable CHD for targeted postnatal care is essential.IMPACT STATEMENT What is already known on this subject? CHD is the most common structural anomaly and is strongly associated with chromosomal anomalies and genetic syndromes. What do the results of this study add? Survival of the prenatally diagnosed CHD depends on the type and severity of the condition and coexisting extracardiac structural or chromosomal abnormalities. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Prenatal detection of CHD allows early workup to identify chromosomal abnormalities, detailed anatomic evaluation of extracardiac malformations and time to refer the parents to tertiary cardiac care centres and prepare for planned delivery, as well as to establish an appropriate perinatal and postnatal therapeutic plan

The role of shear wave elastography in the assessment of placenta previa–accreta

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Objective: To evaluate the value of shear wave elastography (SWE) in the prediction of morbidly adherent placenta. Methods: Forty-three women with normal placental location and 26 women with anteriorly localized placenta previa were recruited for this case-control study. Placental elasticity values in both the groups were determined by SWE imaging. Results: SWE values were higher in the placenta previa group in all regions than in normal localized placentas (p .05). Conclusions: Placental stiffness is significantly higher in placenta previa than normal localized placentas. However, we could not demonstrate any statistically significant difference in the elasticity values between the placenta previa with and without accreta