Presentation of congenital heart disease diagnosed at birth: analysis of 29,770 newborn infants.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence rate and study the clinical presentation and associated factors of congenital heart diseases diagnosed at birth between August 1990 and December 2003, at the Maternity Unit of the Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil.


METHODS
A retrospective, database driven study, part of the Latin-American collaborative study of congenital malformations. Records were reviewed on all live born (LB) and stillborn (SB) infants with congenital heart diseases diagnosed by postnatal echocardiogram or by autopsy. Data on birth weight, sex, age and parity were collected for the LB and studied for associations. The statistical analysis employed Pearson's chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression.


RESULTS
During the period studied there were 29,770 births (28,915 LB and 855 SB). The prevalence of heart disease among the LB was 9.58:1,000 (277/28,915) while among SB the rate was 87.72:1,000 (75/855). Heart disease occurred isolated in 37.2% of LB cases and 18.7% of SB cases; was associated with anomalies of other organs and systems, but without a syndromic diagnosis in 31.4% of LB cases and 48.0% of SB cases; and in 23.1% of the LB cases and 32.0% of the SB cases the heart disease was a feature of a syndrome. Multivariate analysis demonstrated an association between heart disease and birth weight <or= 2,500 g in all types of clinical presentation, between maternal age >or= 35 years and heart disease in syndromic heart disease and between female sex and isolated heart disease.


CONCLUSIONS
It was found a high prevalence, which is an alert to the medical significance of heart disease. There was association between birth weight <or= 2,500 g and all forms of presentation, between increased maternal age and syndromic heart disease besides between female sex and isolated congenital heart disease.
Amorim
Lúcia F P
LF
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
Pires
Catarina A B
CA
Lana
Ana Maria A
AM
Campos
Angela S
AS
Aguiar
Regina A L P
RA
Tibúrcio
Jacqueline Domingues
JD
Siqueira
Arminda Lúcia
AL
Mota
Cleonice C C
CC
Aguiar
Marcos J B
MJ
D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors