Study strengths and limitations
Former studies showed that the outcome of neonates who had been
diagnosed prenatally with a serious CHD and had consequently been
offered an appropriate management in their early neonatal period had
shown a better outcome in comparison with those diagnosed in their
postnatal period [41]. Unfortunately, based on our study design
which lacked a control group, we were not able to compare between
pregnant mothers who had undergone prenatal FE and those who had not as
regards to the perinatal outcome; hence we reported the outcome of our
cases in a descriptive manner rather than a numerical one. Unlike many
of the previous studies; it did not only include structural cardiac
abnormalities but it also included fetal rhythm abnormalities. Moreover,
it highlighted the different varieties of indications for FE and
perinatal risk factors frequently encountered in our community. It was
limited by the number of cases who did not come for follow up, so
postnatal confirmation of the underlying anomaly was not done for all
the studied cases.