Pulse Oximetry Screening for Detecting Critical Congenital Heart Disease in Neonates

When more complex tools are not available, such as in rural or low resource areas, this study found that a pulse oximetry screening tool can be used to detect congenital heart defects in neonates. In the 5,874 neonates studied, 164 were found to have significant hypoxemia on pulse oximetry, and 44 were subsequently found to have a congenital heart defect. These findings are important to finding congenital heart defects in infants whose doctors may not have access to other diagnostic tools.