Diagnosis of Complete Congenital Heart Block: Ductus Venosus to the Rescue

Abstract Complete congenital heart block (CCHB) is a very rare cardiac condition. It is usually diagnosed between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation. But diagnosing this condition is difficult in the antenatal period. To overcome the difficulties of diagnosing using M-mode or spectral Doppler, we propose a novel method for easy diagnosis of CCHB. This is done by using the trace of the ductus venosus. The “a” wave in the ductus venosus trace shows pressure in the ventricle. In CCHB, due to varying pressure in the ventricle, we get varying morphology of the “a” wave.