Fetuses conceived via in-vitro-fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection techniques are at an increased risk of developing congenital heart defects, compared to spontaneous conceptions, according to a study published in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Researchers conducted a systematic search for studies in PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus from inception to September 2017. They included studies comparing neonatal incidence of congenital heart defects in IVF/ICSI and spontaneous conceptions. They excluded studies involving other types of assisted reproductive technology and studies without information concerning termination of pregnancy.
In all, they included 41 studies in the review, six case-control and 34 cohort studies. For the meta-analysis, they used data from eight cohort studies, including a total of 25,856 children obtained via IVF/ICSI techniques and 287,995 children spontaneously conceived.
Researchers found that congenital heart defects were present in 1.3 percent of the IVF/ICSI group and 0.68 percent of the spontaneous conception group.
"However, this finding deserves further investigation due to heterogeneity of both ART procedures and cardiac defects," study authors concluded.