Cardiac Findings in Fetal and Pediatric Autopsies: A 15-Year Retrospective Review

AbstractIntroduction: Congenital heart defects (CHDs) carry significant morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients. This study determined the spectrum of CHDs based on fetal and pediatric autopsies. Methods: Autopsy reports over a 15-year period were reviewed. Postmortem findings were correlated with echocardiography records. Results: From 608 autopsies, 119 cases with CHDs were identified (11% of fetal, 53% of neonatal, 18% of infant, and 4.5% of childhood autopsies). Persistent left superior vena cava was the most common individual defect. 41% of cases had extracardiac malformations. 18.5% of cases had chromosomal abnormalities. Prenatal echocardiography was available in 52 cases, showing 85% correlation with autopsy findings. Defects missed by echocardiography were generally of mild severity. Conclusion: Postmortem examination is important to delineate the anatomy of CHDs, and recognize extracardiac malformations for identification of possible genetic syndromes. This information can be used for pare...