Newborn Screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease

Previous studies have examined the usefulness of pulse oximetry or oxygen saturation to screen for left-sided cardiac lesions. These studies have shown that the occurrence of critical congenital cardiac malformations among asymptomatic newborns is high; the technique of pulse oximetry is reliable for detection of ductal dependant left-sided lesions, simple to operate(requires little time and can be done in the newborn nursery) and is cost effective; there is effective follow-up test (heart ultrasound) and available interventions have an effect on outcome for diagnosed newborns. The importance of this research project is to examine the overall helpfulness of measuring oximetry in newborn infants using somatic oximetry, as well ast to prepare for a population based study in the state of Florida.