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Newborn Screening for High-Risk Congenital Heart Disease by Dried Blood Spot Biomarker Analysis.

Clausen, Henning LU orcid ; Friberg, Elin LU ; Lannering, Katarina ; Koivu, Aki ; Sairanen, Mikko ; Mellander, Mats and Liuba, Petru LU (2024) In JAMA Network Open 7(6).
Abstract
Importance Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common human organ malformation, affecting approximately 1 of 125 newborns globally.

Objectives Assessing the performance of 2 diagnostic tests using minimal amounts of dried blood spots (DBS) to identify high-risk CHD compared with controls in a Swedish cohort of neonates.

Design, Setting, and Participants This diagnostic study took place in Sweden between 2019 and 2023 and enrolled full-term babies born between 2005 and 2023. All cases were identified through centralized pediatric cardiothoracic surgical services in Lund and Gothenburg, Sweden. Controls were followed up for 1 year to ensure no late presentations of high-risk CHD occurred. Cases were verified... (More)
Importance Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common human organ malformation, affecting approximately 1 of 125 newborns globally.

Objectives Assessing the performance of 2 diagnostic tests using minimal amounts of dried blood spots (DBS) to identify high-risk CHD compared with controls in a Swedish cohort of neonates.

Design, Setting, and Participants This diagnostic study took place in Sweden between 2019 and 2023 and enrolled full-term babies born between 2005 and 2023. All cases were identified through centralized pediatric cardiothoracic surgical services in Lund and Gothenburg, Sweden. Controls were followed up for 1 year to ensure no late presentations of high-risk CHD occurred. Cases were verified through surgical records and echocardiography.

Exposure High-risk CHD, defined as cases requiring cardiac surgical management during infancy due to evolving signs of heart failure or types in which the postnatal circulation depends on patency of the arterial duct. Using 3-μL DBS samples, automated quantitative tests for NT-proBNP and interleukin 1 receptor-like 1 (IL-1 RL1; formerly known as soluble ST2) were compared against established CHD screening methods.

Main Outcomes and Measures Performance of DBS tests to detect high-risk CHD using receiver operating characteristic curves; Bland-Altman and Pearson correlation analyses to compare IL-1 RL1 DBS with plasma blood levels.

Results A total of 313 newborns were included (mean [SD] gestational age, 39.4 [1.3] weeks; 181 [57.8%] male). Mean (SD) birthweight was 3495 (483) grams. Analyzed DBS samples included 217 CHD cases and 96 controls. Among the CHD cases, 188 participants (89.3%) were high-risk types, of which 73 (38.8%) were suspected prenatally. Of the 188 high-risk cases, 94 (50.0%) passed pulse oximetry screening and 36 (19.1%) were initially discharged after birth without diagnoses. Combining NT-proBNP and IL-1 RL1 tests performed well in comparison with existing screening methods and enabled additional identification of asymptomatic babies with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve 0.95 (95% CI, 0.93-0.98).

Conclusions and relevance In this diagnostic study, NT-proBNP and IL-1 RL1 DBS assays identified high-risk CHD in a timely manner, including in asymptomatic newborns, and improved overall screening performance in this cohort from Sweden. Prospective evaluation of this novel approach is warranted. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
JAMA Network Open
volume
7
issue
6
article number
e2418097
pages
12 pages
publisher
American Medical Association
external identifiers
  • pmid:38913376
ISSN
2574-3805
DOI
10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18097
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
98a1a44d-1935-4c31-929f-2aa868784f38
date added to LUP
2024-06-25 08:14:49
date last changed
2024-06-26 03:00:17
@article{98a1a44d-1935-4c31-929f-2aa868784f38,
  abstract     = {{Importance  Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common human organ malformation, affecting approximately 1 of 125 newborns globally.<br/><br/>Objectives  Assessing the performance of 2 diagnostic tests using minimal amounts of dried blood spots (DBS) to identify high-risk CHD compared with controls in a Swedish cohort of neonates.<br/><br/>Design, Setting, and Participants  This diagnostic study took place in Sweden between 2019 and 2023 and enrolled full-term babies born between 2005 and 2023. All cases were identified through centralized pediatric cardiothoracic surgical services in Lund and Gothenburg, Sweden. Controls were followed up for 1 year to ensure no late presentations of high-risk CHD occurred. Cases were verified through surgical records and echocardiography.<br/><br/>Exposure  High-risk CHD, defined as cases requiring cardiac surgical management during infancy due to evolving signs of heart failure or types in which the postnatal circulation depends on patency of the arterial duct. Using 3-μL DBS samples, automated quantitative tests for NT-proBNP and interleukin 1 receptor-like 1 (IL-1 RL1; formerly known as soluble ST2) were compared against established CHD screening methods.<br/><br/>Main Outcomes and Measures  Performance of DBS tests to detect high-risk CHD using receiver operating characteristic curves; Bland-Altman and Pearson correlation analyses to compare IL-1 RL1 DBS with plasma blood levels.<br/><br/>Results  A total of 313 newborns were included (mean [SD] gestational age, 39.4 [1.3] weeks; 181 [57.8%] male). Mean (SD) birthweight was 3495 (483) grams. Analyzed DBS samples included 217 CHD cases and 96 controls. Among the CHD cases, 188 participants (89.3%) were high-risk types, of which 73 (38.8%) were suspected prenatally. Of the 188 high-risk cases, 94 (50.0%) passed pulse oximetry screening and 36 (19.1%) were initially discharged after birth without diagnoses. Combining NT-proBNP and IL-1 RL1 tests performed well in comparison with existing screening methods and enabled additional identification of asymptomatic babies with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve 0.95 (95% CI, 0.93-0.98).<br/><br/>Conclusions and relevance  In this diagnostic study, NT-proBNP and IL-1 RL1 DBS assays identified high-risk CHD in a timely manner, including in asymptomatic newborns, and improved overall screening performance in this cohort from Sweden. Prospective evaluation of this novel approach is warranted.}},
  author       = {{Clausen, Henning and Friberg, Elin and Lannering, Katarina and Koivu, Aki and Sairanen, Mikko and Mellander, Mats and Liuba, Petru}},
  issn         = {{2574-3805}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{American Medical Association}},
  series       = {{JAMA Network Open}},
  title        = {{Newborn Screening for High-Risk Congenital Heart Disease by Dried Blood Spot Biomarker Analysis.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18097}},
  doi          = {{10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18097}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}