Congenital Heart Defects

An AI software system trained to detect findings suspicious for fetal congenital heart defects significantly improved sensitivity and specificity compared with unaided reviews of 2D scans, researchers reported at The Pregnancy Meeting.

Infants conceived after assisted reproductive technology had a 36% greater risk for being born with a major heart defect, results from a large cohort study published in the European Heart Journal showed.

Mothers with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have increased risks for having children with a congenital heart defect, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

Children who underwent cardiac surgery had a high medication burden that often persisted throughout adolescence, with medication expenditures often 10-fold higher compared with those who did not have heart surgery, data show.

Hospitalized patients with congenital heart defects are up to twice as likely to have critical outcomes of COVID-19 illness compared with hospitalized COVID-19 patients without heart defects, according to research published in Circulation.

The American Heart Association and the Children’s Heart Foundation announced they committed $917,426 to further research in congenital heart defects.