Detection Of Oxygen Levels In Blood Can Help Save Babies
6th August, 2011 - Posted by Erica - No Comments
Congenital heart defects have been a problem for infants since even the our time and there have been lives lost due to such problems being undetected for years. They are asymptomatic at times and you won’t be able to tell if you have a heart disease until you see your child blue in the face and it’s already too late. Not all of us can afford a scan to help prevent that from happening these days but there is a new way we can check for that through a quick and cheap method that could save the lives of babies born of these conditions.
There hs been a recent study posted in The Lancet that shows how 20,055 newborns tested for oxygen in the blood have more success than any other checks available for them. This test is now being called to use by the researchers all accross UK. This test can make a difference according the British Heart Foundation.
Congenital heart defects are usually holes in the chambers of the heart or valve defects. They affect around one out of 145 babies born in the UK. They can be detected through ultrasound during pregnancy and/or listening to the heart when the baby is already born. The problem is, the success for such detection is still low.
The new test that they are talking about is the use of pulse oximeters to check out oxygen levels of babies. By placing it on all the fingers and toes, oxygen saturation will be checked and if there would be low levels, that would prompt to more testing that can detect and find out how to save your baby’s life. Pulse oximeters are being used in six maternity hospitals in the UK and this technology has been present already for about 20 years now. The test only takes 5 minutes and as the study showed, 75% of the most serious abnormalities have been found. With tranditional methods used along side it, 92% were detected to have congenital heart problems.
This is a cheap way to get your child tested for possible heart problems. All we want is for our children to grow healthy. Making sure that happens through a five minute test won’t hurt your child and can even save his life in case he has the disease and is asymptomatic. Get it done as soon as possible.
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