Congenital heart disease diagnosed in Guadeloupe.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Between January 1988 and December 1990 health workers referred 139 infants suspected of heart disease to a skilled pediatric cardiologist at the University Hospital of Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. The physicians considered patent ductus arteriosus of prematurity to be a congenital heart disease if it still existed after the neonatal period. The incidence of congenital heart disease was 6.08 cases/1000 live births with a sex ratio of 1:1. 12% of chromosomal abnormalities, especially Down's syndrome. Physicians diagnosed 92% of all cases in the 1st year of life. 35% (49 infants) went to the Pediatric Cardiologic Department of Hospital Necker in Paris, France, to undergo catheterizations. 32 of these infants also underwent chest surgery. Prevalence of coarctation of the aorta (3.1/10,000 live births) essentially equalled that of developed countries. The prevalence of hypoplastic left heart disease was considerably higher than the rate in the literature (3.5/10,000 live births vs. 0.5-2.7/10,000 live births). It was the 4th ranking congenital heart disease in this population (5.7% of all cases). All the infants with hypoplastic left heart disease died.