PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Almawazini, Abdulmajid M. AU - Hanafi, Hamdi K. AU - Madkhali, Hasan A. AU - Majrashi, Noura B. TI - Effectiveness of the critical congenital heart disease screening program for early diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities in newborn infants AID - 10.15537/smj.2017.10.20295 DP - 2017 Oct 01 TA - Saudi Medical Journal PG - 1019--1024 VI - 38 IP - 10 4099 - http://smj.org.sa/content/38/10/1019.short 4100 - http://smj.org.sa/content/38/10/1019.full SO - Saudi Med J2017 Oct 01; 38 AB - Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening program for early diagnosis of cardiac anomalies in newborn infants.Methods: This is a hospital-based prospective cross-sectional study conducted in the Pediatric and Neonatology Department, King Fahad Hospital at Albaha, Saudi Arabia, between February 2016 and February 2017.Results: We screened 2961 (95.4%) of 3103 patients in a nursery unit; 142 (4.6%) patients were not screened. The test was positive in 114 (3.9%) patients and negative in 2847 (96.1%). There were 94 (3.2%) false positives and 20 (0.7%) true positives. Critical cardiac defects were diagnosed in 7 (0.2%) patients of all screened infants, and severe pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed in 13 (0.4%) patients. True negative results were found in 2841(96%) patients, and no cardiac defect was diagnosed, whereas false negative results were seen in 6 (0.2%) patients diagnosed with ventricular septal defect. The sensitivity was 77%, and the specificity was very high at 97%, with a positive predictive value of 18%, and a negative predictive value of 99.8% (95% confidence interval 13.78-19.18, p=0.0001).Conclusion: Pulse oximetry was found to be easy, safe, sensitive, and highly specific for diagnosis of CCHD.