Evaluation of Congenital Heart Diseases in Neonates with Diabetic Mothers Who Referred to Teaching Hospitals in Qom, Iran

Neonates of diabetic mothers are more prone to congenital heart diseases than others. These abnormalities are the leading cause of fetal death in diabetic neonates. Therefore, the determination of a screening method and evaluation of its value seems necessary in such neonates. The present study investigated the various types of congenital heart diseases in neonates of diabetic mothers.

The present descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of congenital heart malformations on 200 neonates of diabetic mothers who had referred to the teaching hospitals of Qom, Iran. The designed checklists included the maternal age, gestational age, gender of the infant, occupation of the mother, family history, maternal diabetes, Apgar, respiratory distress, cyanosis, and echocardiographic results.

Based on the findings, echocardiographic results of 82 neonates of diabetic mothers were abnormal. Moreover, it was concluded that the infant weight abnormality, reception of oral medications, overt diabetes, and the decrease of fasting blood glucose had a significant relationship with heart diseases in infants of diabetic mothers. Moreover, the study found that echocardiographic results were abnormal in 49% of neonates of diabetic mothers. Furthermore, 3%, 1.5%, 69.5%, 41%, 0%, and 3.5% of the participants had VSD, ASD, PFO, PDA, MR, and TR.

Based on the results, it was concluded that 9 out of each 10 diabetic neonates have congenital heart anomalies, with PFO being the most common one of them.