Selected Data from the Polish National Registry for Fetal Cardiac Pathology for the Year 2012 – Quo Vadis?

Abstract The Polish National Registry for Fetal Cardiac Pathology, which has been in existence since 2004, is one of the unique organisational achievements of the Polish prenatal cardiology. Now that the calendar year 2012 is over, we are setting about working on the summary of our work to chart its new directions. Materials and methods: Standard data reports from the year 2012 have been analysed and compared with data published in the Prenatal Cardiology quarterly in 2011 and other data collected between 2004 and 2010. Results: 538 new records were entered in the Registry in 2012. Consequently, the total number of examinations registered between 2004 and 2012 amounts to 5297 records. 72% (n = 388) of all the patients entered in the Registry were examined by C-type centres, i.e. Warsaw (186), Łódź (150) and Ruda Śląska (79). The commonest heart defects included hypoplastic left heart syndrome (n = 81), tetralogy of Fallot (n = 51) and AVSD (n = 49): atrial & ventricular components (n = 49). The data collected between 2004 and 2010, in 2011 and 2012 were compared. In 2011 544 foetuses with cardiologic problems were registered, while in 2012 there were 538 of them. In 2011, there were 24 centres in the Registry. Last year, there were 27 of them. As in the previous years, HLHS was the most frequently registered foetus heart defect in 2012. In 2012 the second one was TOF. In 2012, LSF and PBU were the two major prenatal cardiology centres in Poland and registered over 100 foetuses every year. In 2012, the number of doctors diagnosing over five cases of foetal heart defects a year reached 10%. The majority of the doctors (89%) diagnosed such cases rarely (< 5 cases a year). In 2011, the percentage of the pregnant women who decided to terminate the pregnancy was larger than between 2004 and 2010, but smaller than in 2012; it was < 7%. Conclusions: The data included in the 2012 in The Polish National Registry for Fetal Cardiac Pathology is similar to the data collected in the previous years. The classification of foetal heart defects is imperfect and interpreted in various ways by particular centres. This needs to be changed in the future; the way the classification is interpreted must be made uniform.