Cardiff Congenital Hearts (CCHIRPP)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cardiff Congenital Hearts – Investigating and Reporting Postnatal Presentation to formulate and implement a reporting system for identification of the percentage and types of congenital heart defects undiagnosed by current antenatal ultrasound screening in South Wales.
IRAS ID
149900
Contact name
Julia Kennedy
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
16959, NISCHR CRC Portfolio (UKCRN)
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
All pregnant women in Wales are offered an ultrasound scan to screen for structural abnormalities in their baby, including heart defects (CHD), the antenatal (before birth) identification of which enables parents and doctors to make important decisions about the management of the pregnancy and birth. Over time, ultrasound examination techniques have changed and developed as it has been proven that additional views of the heart improve diagnostic accuracy.
Following a training programme designed to enable sonographers to undertake more views of the fetal heart during scans, antenatal detection rates of CHD in Wales has increased from 20 - 25% of cases to over 50% (16). This is a large increase, but there are still over 40% of cases of CHD that remain undiagnosed before birth. This may be because the abnormality cannot be picked up antenatally, but also can be due to the level of sonographer training (12,17). However, differing reporting and data collection systems and location of cardiac and paediatric referral centres for babies born in Wales, does not enable analysis of the types of cases that currently remain undiagnosed.
This study aims to devise and implement a centrally monitored notification system to identify cases of congenital heart disease presenting to Cardiff Cardiac Services within the first year of life. Looking back at the antenatal examinations of these children with the benefit of a known postnatal (after birth) diagnosis could offer information that may change or adapt existing screening techniques, and also provide early identification of sonographer training needs to further improve the accuracy of diagnosis of CHD in Wales.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0262
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion