Purpose: To characterize temporal trends and outcomes of delivery hospitalization with maternal congenital heart disease (CHD).
Materials and methods: For this repeated cross-sectional analysis, deliveries to women aged 15-54 years with maternal CHD were identified in the 2000-2018 National Inpatient Sample. Temporal trends in maternal CHD were analyzed using joinpoint regression to estimate the average annual percentage change (AAPC) with 95% CIs. The relationship between maternal CHD and several adverse maternal outcomes was analyzed with log-linear regression models. Risk for adverse outcomes in the setting of maternal CHD was further characterized based on additional diagnoses of cardiac comorbidity including congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, valvular disease, pulmonary disorders, and history of thromboembolism.
Results: Of 73,109,790 delivery hospitalizations, 51,841 had a diagnosis of maternal CHD (7.1 per 10,000). Maternal CHD rose from 4.2 to 10.9 per 10,000 deliveries (AAPC 4.8%, 95% CI 4.2%, 5.4%). Maternal CHD deliveries with a cardiac comorbidity diagnosis also increased from 0.6 to 2.6 per 10,000 from 2000 to 2018 (AAPC 8.4%, 95% CI 6.3%, 10.6%). Maternal CHD was associated with severe maternal morbidity (adjusted risk ratios [aRR] 4.97, 95% CI 4.75, 5.20), cardiac severe maternal morbidity (aRR 7.65, 95% CI 7.14, 8.19), placental abruption (aRR 1.30, 95% 1.21, 1.38), preterm delivery (aRR 1.47, 95% CI 1.43, 1.51), and transfusion (aRR 2.28, 95% CI 2.14, 2.42). Risk for severe morbidity (AAPC 4.7%, 95% CI 2.5%, 6.9%) and cardiac severe morbidity (AAPC 4.7%, 95% CI 2.5%, 6.9%) increased significantly among women with maternal CHD over the study period. The presence of cardiac comorbidity diagnoses was associated with further increased risk.
Conclusion: Maternal CHD is becoming more common among US deliveries. Among deliveries with maternal CHD, risk for severe morbidity is increasing. These findings support that an increasing burden of risk from maternal CHD in the obstetric population.
Purpose: To derive a prescriptive sex-specific fetal growth standard and assess clinical management and outcomes according to sex-specific growth status.
Materials and methods: This was a secondary analysis of the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be (nuMoM2b), a prospective observational study of 10,038 nulliparas from eight U.S. centers who underwent ultrasounds at 14-20 and 22-29 weeks with outcomes ascertained after delivery. From these, we selected a nested cohort of lower risk participants (excluded those with chronic hypertension, pre-gestational diabetes, suspected aneuploidy, and preterm delivery) to derive a sex-specific equation for expected fetal growth using fetal weights by ultrasound and at birth. We compared the male-female discrepancy in the rate of weight <10th (small for gestational age [SGA]) and >90th (large for gestational age [LGA]) percentiles between the sex-specific and sex-neutral (Hadlock) standards. Using the full unselected cohort, we then assessed outcomes and clinical management according to sex-specific SGA and LGA status.
Results: Overall, 7280 infants in the lower risk nested cohort were used to derive a sex-specific equation with fetal sex included as an equation intercept. The sex-neutral standard diagnosed SGA more often in female newborns (21% vs. 13%, p < .001) and LGA more often in male newborns (5% vs. 3%, p < .001). The sex-specific standard resolved these disparities (SGA: 9% vs. 10%, p = .23; LGA: 13% vs. 13%, p = .58). To approximate an unselected population, 1059 participants initially excluded for risk factors for abnormal growth were then included for our secondary objective (N = 8339). In this unselected cohort, 39% (95% CI 37.0-42.0%) of the 1498 newborns classified as SGA by the sex-neutral standard were reclassified as appropriate for gestational age (AGA) by the sex-specific standard. These reclassified newborns were more likely to be delivered for growth restriction despite having lower risk of morbidity (females) or comparable risk of morbidity (males) compared to newborns considered AGA by both methods. Of the 6485 newborns considered AGA by the sex-neutral standard, 737 (11.4%, 95% CI 10.6-12.2%) were reclassified as LGA by the sex-specific standard. These reclassified newborns had higher rates of cesarean for arrest of descent, cesarean for arrest of dilation, and shoulder dystocia than newborns considered AGA by both methods. None were reclassified from LGA to AGA by the sex-specific standard.
Conclusion: The Hadlock sex-neutral standard generates sex disparities in SGA and LGA at birth. Our sex-specific standard resolves these disparities and has the potential to improve accuracy of growth pathology risk stratification.