Burden of Heart Diseases in Children Attending Cardiology Clinic in a Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda

Abstract

nbsp nbsp Introduction Patterns and prevalence of heart diseases are different between the high income countries and low income countries Acquired heart diseases like RHD cardiomyopathies pericarditis are still a public health burden while congenital heart diseases still carry a poor outcome among children The aim of this study was to report the burden and pattern of heart diseases in a semi urban referral hospital in Uganda nbsp nbsp Methods This was a prospective study in the pediatrics rsquo department at a regional referral hospital in Uganda over a period of months All children from birth up to years who were referred or presented at pediatric department from different areas in the region for an index cardiac evaluation and had their Transthoraxic echo done were included in the study These children were enrolled and followed up in the cardiology clinic for chronic care Those who did not turn up for their expected reviews were followed up with phone calls to find out their outcome nbsp nbsp Results Two hundred and forty children were screened during period and had abnormal echocardiological findings More females than males were had abnormal Echos at VSD were the commonest acyanotic heart disease followed by PDA at and respectively TOF was highest at followed by Truncus arteriosus at Mean age at diagnosis of congenital heart disease was months SD RHD was the commonest at of the acquired heart diseases Sixty three percent of children needed and were referred to the national cardiac centre Only managed to go to the cardiac centre only got surgical intervention of the children died while were lost to follow up nbsp nbsp Conclusion There is a high burden of heart diseases in our setting with limited access to interventional services nbsp