Spectrum of congenital heart disease in a tertiary care centre of Northern India

ABSTRACT

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is very common disease and it is the major cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. Not much of Indian data are available particularly from the northern part of the country. It is important to mention that this part of India is unique with respect to its demographic and geographical location. There are needs to further explicate the spectrum and epidemiology of the CHD in this part of the country.Methods: A prospective hospital-based study carried out over a period of 24 months (January 2016 to January 2018) where all suspected children (<14 years) of CHD were subjected to echocardiographic study. The age, sex, clinical presentation and echo findings were well documented.Results: Out of total 3210 cases CHD was diagnosed in 2072 cases (64.54%). Most CHDs were diagnosed between 1 month and 6 years of age in both cyanotic and a cyanotic disease group. Incidence of a cyanotic CHD was n=1529 (47.6%) and cyanotic CHD was n=543 (17%) with the ratio of acyanotic to cyanotic 2.81. Ventricular septal defect was commonest CHD (35.85%) among acyanotic CHD and Tetralogy of Fallot was the commonest (12.2%) among cyanotic CHD.Conclusions: Burden of CHD is highly underestimated and unrecognised, especially in this part of the country. This study can provide observed data that can help in policy making in the health sector. The contrasting result with respect to complex CHD in present study indicates need for good and effective antenatal cardiac screening in high risk mothers.