Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening Using Pulse Oximetry

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect. Approximately eight per every 1,000 babies are born with a form of CHD. Some of those babies will have a life-threatening form of CHD or critical CHD. The goal of newborn Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) screening using pulse oximetry is to make sure that all at-risk infants are identified prior to leaving the newborn nursery after birth.

In the first 24 hours of life, a pulse oximetry (pulse ox) test can quickly and painlessly determine whether a baby may have critical congenital heart disease and possibly save his or her life. Screening for more serious forms of CHD is a part of the U.S. Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) and supported by the Department of Health and Human Services, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Academy of Pediatrics and March of Dimes.

Children’s National created the Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program to help identify critical CHD while newborns are in the nursery. It has become part of the standard of care at hospitals in the U.S. and has resulted in improved outcomes.

The program promotes early detection through the use of pulse oximetry following 24 hours of age and prior to discharge from the newborn nursery. The program values the importance of the screening of all healthy newborns for critical congenital heart disease.

Pulse oximetry is part of routine testing performed on all infants that are not already thought to have CHD. It is recommended that pulse oximetry screening be done in conjunction with other standard-of-care newborn screening that requires the baby be at least 24 hours of age, such as PKU screening.

All healthy babies that are not thought to have CHD should be screened. If the pulse oximetry reading is normal, the baby can be discharged and is at low risk for a congenital heart defect. If the baby does not pass, the baby's doctor may order an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart) to check for CCHD.

Contact Us

If you are an expectant parent or a clinician interested in the Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program, please contact Lisa Hom at 202-476-5063, or you can email her or email the team.