Congenital heart disease in adults: An autopsy study

Abstract

<h3>Background</h3> Today about 90% of children born with congenital heart disease (CHD) survive to adulthood, following improvements in diagnostic, interventional and critical care skills. The same scenario does not often exist in developing countries. Some of these anomalies (both simple and complex) may be detected in adults at autopsy, which is the theme of this study. <h3>Methods</h3> This is a retrospective analysis of adult CHD among autopsied patients 2007 to 2013.We categorized cases into diagnosed, undiagnosed and misdiagnosed CHDs, which were further classified depending on their complexity (low, moderate and severe) and this was correlated with clinical presentation. <h3>Results</h3> Among 59 adults with CHD, majority were males with an age range of 20 to 70 years. Of these, 28 defects were undiagnosed, 21 previously diagnosed, while 10 were misdiagnosed. In all categories the commonest presenting symptom was dyspnoea on exertion (32 patients), attributed to cardiac disease in 26 patients. Congenital aortic valvular malformations (low complexity) were the most common lesions in all categories, but 12 patients had lesions of moderate or severe complexity. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Every adult patient presenting with cardiac or respiratory symptoms should be thoroughly investigated not only for acquired causes but also for certain congenital heart diseases.