Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) is a morphological defect in the structure of heart, which occurs during embryonic stage and is the leading non–infectious cause of mortality and morbidity in newborns. The prevalence of CHD varies widely among worldwide with a prevalence of 9.3 per 1,000 live births in India. There are many causes that results in congenital heart defects which includes genetic and environmental factors. Several biochemical studies demonstrated that raised homocysteine, low folic acid and vitamin B12 levels are the primitive cause for CHD. Furthermore, it is observed that deficiencies in nutrients such as folic acid and VitaminB12 may lead to several birth defects like neural tube defects, growth retardation and elevate the plasma homocysteine levels which have been implicated in the causation of CHDs in foetuses. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of homocysteine, folic acid and VitaminB12 levels with CHD in foetuses. A total of 100 women carrying foetuses with CHD along with 100 women carrying normal foetuses were enrolled for the present study. The homocysteine levels were raised in women carrying a foetus with CHD and differed significantly between the groups, while the folic acid was low in both the groups.
Thus, an antenatal test panel comprising of vitamin B12, folic acid and homocysteine level could serve as a predictive marker of CHD risk in foetuses and refined nutritional intervention strategies like folate intake in diet and supplements may reduce the risk of CHD’s in foetuses.