Letter: Heart Disease in Infants

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Michael Grabell's personal and informative essay, "The Simple Test That Saved My Baby" (Sunday Review, Sept. 22), says it well. We have come far in our ability to treat congenital heart conditions.

Today, there are actually more adults than children living with congenital heart disease.

It's incredible that infants who might benefit from early treatment are not identified in their first days of life through a simple, effective, inexpensive and noninvasive test. In combination with other measures, pulse oximetry screening can reduce the chances of missed critical congenital heart disease in newborns to 2 percent.

Two years ago, at the urging of the American College of Cardiology and many others, the federal Department of Health and Human Services recommended adding pulse oximetry to routine newborn screenings across the country.

Today, a growing number of states are stepping up to require this test, offering another tool for early diagnosis of our country's No. 1 birth defect. It's time for the rest of the country to follow suit.

JOHN G. HAROLD
President
American College of Cardiology
Washington, Sept. 24, 2013

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