Prevalence and pattern of heart diseases in a new tertiary hospital in north central Nigeria: an echocardiographic study

Abstract

Heart diseases occur in all age groups but the prev alence and pattern differs according to age, geographical region and socioeconomic status. Echoc ardiography is a non-invasive, relatively cheap imaging technique for evaluation of heart disease w ith reliable levels of accuracy. The aim of this st udy is to determine the prevalence and pattern of heart disease in our setting using echocardiography. Retrospective analysis of echocardiographic reports of heart diseases was done for age, sex and echocardiographic diagnoses. The mean age of the po pulation was 47.76±19.45 years. Males were 122 and females were 109. Seventy two subjects (32.1%) had hypertensive heart disease, 53(22.9%) had dilated cardiomyopathy, 36(15.6%) had rheumatic hea rt disease, 15(6.5%) had ischemic heart disease, 10(4.3%) had pericardial diseases, 9(3.9%) had cong enital heart disease, 2(0.9%) had corpulmonale. Others included 6 isolated right ventricular dilata tion, 1 isolated left atrial dilatation and 1 hyper trophic cardiomyopathy in 3.5%. Forty echocardiograms17.3% were reported as normal. Hypertensive heart disease was the most prevalent heart disease in thi s study followed by those due to infections. The rising prevalence of ischemic heart disease shows t hat Nigeria is undergoing epidemiologic transition. Primary preventive measures, control of blood press ure and early treatment of infections is therefore recommended