Heart tests for newborns a must

By Dr. Ben Reinking

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Expectant parents focus on the exciting details surrounding their baby's birth. They prepare the nursery, pick out just the right clothes, and do research to get the safest car seat and the most adaptable stroller. All of that attention to detail helps ensure that beautiful baby is well taken care of and protected.

But sadly, here in Iowa, there is one critical detail that all too often is being missed when a child is born: a simple check of the baby's heart health.

Pulse oximetry screening - a sensor put on a finger and foot to calculate the amount of oxygen in the blood stream - is the most effective way to screen for critical congenital heart defects, the leading cause of death for children with a birth defect. The test is quick, painless and cheap. By requiring it for all newborns, we could identify life-threatening heart defects that are not otherwise detectable on a standard newborn exam.

That, quite simply, means lives saved.

Pulse oximetry screening, or pulse ox for short, is widely supported in the medical community, including by the American Heart Association and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ten states require this simple test to be conducted. Recently in New Jersey, just hours after the screening law took effect, a newborn's life was saved because of the results from the pulse ox test.

Pulse ox is such a no-brainer it's hard to imagine why it isn't already required here. The Iowa Senate passed SF 393 unanimously to require the test for all newborns. We urge the House to pass this legislation immediately, before a precious young life is lost to a heart defect that could have been caught on day one.

Heart defects are the No. 1 defect in newborns, affecting affect one in 100 babies. Pulse oximetry helps prevent children from going home undiagnosed.

If the obvious health and societal benefits aren't clear enough, there are important budgetary reasons for policymakers to take action. If a baby is discharged with an undetected critical congenital heart defect, he or should could crash at home and, if survived, the event would require an extra 7-10 days in the ICU at a minimum cost of $1,500 per day. Pulse ox screening costs not much more than a cup of coffee; many hospitals don't charge for it at all.

It's time for the Iowa House to act. Call your state senator at (515) 281-3371 or state representative at (515) 281-3221.

For the protection of our families, the health of our community and the economy of our state, let's make pulse ox a requirement in Iowa.

Dr. Ben Reinking is director, Pediatric Echocardiography Lab, University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Comments: benjamin-reinking@uiowa.edu