Brain‐type natriuretic peptide level in pregnant women with congenital heart disease predicts SGA offspring

BACKGROUND: Women with congenital heart disease (CHD) commonly experience complications related to CHD during pregnancy. The clinical features of neonates born to mothers with CHD, however, have not been fully investigated. The frequency of small for gestational age (SGA) is high in infants born to mothers with CHD, but the risk factors have not been examined sufficiently. Therefore, we analyzed the maternal features associated with SGA infants. METHODS AND RESULTS: We enrolled pregnant women with repaired CHD and infants born to them at Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital between April 2007 and March 2015. Eleven SGA (11%) and 91 non-SGA infants (89%) were included. On multivariate logistic regression, SGA infants were significantly more likely to be associated with a high maternal brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level (OR, 6.7; 95%CI: 1.3-34.5; P = 0.02) and maternal single ventricle disease (OR, 8.4; 95%CI:1.4-51.8; P = 0.02) than were non-SGA infants. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of SGA infants born to mothers with CHD was not high in this study. High BNP and maternal single ventricle disease, however, are independent predictors of SGA in infants.