Congenital Heart Disease Diagnosed With Echocardiogram In Newborns With Asymptomatic Cardiac Murmurs

Abstract

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is defined as a gross structural abnormality of the heart or intrathoracic great vessels that causes significant functional impairment. Twenty-eight percentage of all major congenital anomalies consists of heart defects and along with neural tube defects they account for two-thirds of all congenital malformations. The estimated birth prevalence of CHD is 8/1000 live births with a significant geographical difference. A recent systemic review reported that the highest prevalence (9.3/1000 live births) was in Asia due to high birth rate and consanguineous marriages and the lowest prevalence was in Africa (8.2/1000 live births). In India, over 180,000 children are born with CHD every year with state-wise variation and contribute to 10% of the present infant mortality. Nearly one-third of the CHD are critical requiring intervention in the 1st year of life.
Methods: This was a cross sectional study carried out in the Department of Paediatrics, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Karad, Maharashtra, India, for one and half year. 100 term neonates with asymptomatic, non-syndromic cardiac murmurs noticed during routine neonatal examination were studied.
Results: Among the 100 newborns with ANCM, 81 newborns were diagnosed with Echo as having CHD, and atrial septal defect was the most common congenital malformation. 7 out of 100 newborns with ANCM diagnosed with CHD were referred to higher centre for cardiac intervention.
Conclusion: On the basis of present study, routine 2d echo screening is advised for all babies with ANCM since 81% of our ANCM’s were diagnosed to have CHD, rest of which 8.6% cases require immediate cardiac referral.