Updated Strategies for Pulse Oximetry Screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease

From the article: “The most important outcome of this stakeholder meeting is the new recommended algorithm for use in the United States (See Recommended Algorithm in Article). The new algorithm has 2 key differences: (1) requiring 95% or greater in both the right hand and foot to be considered passing and (2) having only 1 retest instead of 2. These changes are expected to simplify the algorithm interpretation and screening process, and they may increase the overall sensitivity of POS. However, these changes may also slightly increase the false-positive rate. Any infant who would have failed the initial algorithm will also fail with these changes, and a few additional children may also fail. Some of these additional failed test results may represent a true-positive result with CCHD, and others may be false-positive results.”

The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has not made any changes to CCHD Screening guidelines or rules. View current OSDH information here.