Maternal-fetal medicine

This edition of our journal begins at the obstetrics section with an article that underlines the role of a congenital malformations registry, realizing a systematic and comprehensive database that collects, stores and analyzes information about congenital malformations detected at birth or during pregnancy. As the Romanian National Congenital Anomaly Registry (RN-CAR) is considered the next step in the fetal malformation diagnosis and subsequent management, this paper presents the benefits of a national database for both patients and doctors.

Further, it is brought under the attention a study that analyzes the sonographic findings in open spina bifida, detected in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, correlating them with the morphopathological aspects.

First-trimester screening is the most important method for detecting major fetal anomalies. Noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs) have been used more frequently to evaluate genetic anomalies but, as the study presented in our paper shows, noninvasive prenatal testing should not be used as the only screening method for fetal anomalies – this test must be accompanied by an ultrasound scan of the fetal anatomy.

As Doppler ultrasound techniques are known to be essential tools in the noninvasive assessment of fetal cardiovascular function, particularly for measuring atrioventricular (AV) time intervals, these measurements provide important information about the heart’s function and can aid in the diagnosis of fetal arrhythmias, especially heart blocks.