title: The spectrum of congenital heart diseases in down syndrome. A retrospective study from Northwest Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To to define the frequency and patterns of congenital heart disease (CHD) among children with Down syndrome (DS) in Northwest Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included children with confirmed DS referred to the regional pediatric cardiology unit in Madinah Maternity and Children Hospital between January 2008 and December 2013. Children were identified from the unit's data-base and the charts were reviewed retrospectively. We excluded term and preterm children with patent ducts arteriosus (PDA) and persistent foramen oval spontaneously resolved during the first 4 weeks of life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 302 children with DS were identified (50.3% male). Of these, 177 (58.6%) had CHD. Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) was the most frequent lesion identified in 72/177 (40.7%) followed by mixed left to right shunt defects (14.7%) and secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) (11.8%). Ventricular septal defect was detected in 10.7% and 8.5% had PDA beyond the neonatal period. There was no gender difference in the frequency of CHD (p=0.9) and the presence of CHD was not related to the genetic cause of DS (p=0.9).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The frequency of CHD in our DS cohort is comparable with Europe, Asia ,and other KSA regions. However its pattern appears to be different from some areas in KSA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Madina Cardiac Center, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. E-mail. mofeedfawaz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mohamed M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Morsy
authors.forename: Osama O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Algrigri
authors.forename: Sherif S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.forename: Mostafa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Abosedera
authors.forename: Ashraf R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Abutaleb
authors.forename: Khaled M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Al-Harbi
authors.forename: Ibrahim S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Al-Mozainy
authors.forename: Abdulhameed A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alnajjar
authors.forename: Abdelhadi M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Habeb
authors.forename: Hany M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Abo-Haded
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012529:Saudi Arabia