Panel proposes national plan to screen newborns for congenital heart disease.

摘要

AN EXPERT PANEL HAS LAID OUT A strategy for implementing a national screening program to test all newborns for congenital heart disease, the leading cause of death from birth defects in children younger than 1 year. The panel, whose recommendations were released August 21 online in Pediatrics, said such screening can easily be performed using pulse ox-imetry to detect abnormal oxygen saturation levels suggestive of possible congenital heart disease (doi: 10.1542/peds .2011-1317).