Spectrum of congenital heart disease in Down syndrome at Faisalabad institute of cardiology: A retrospective study.

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common structural anomaly in Down syndrome children with a variable spectrum all over the world including Pakistan. Objectives: To determine the spectrum of congenital heart disease in Down syndrome at Faisalabad Institute of cardiology (FIC) Faisalabad. Study Design: Retrospective descriptive case series. Setting: Pediatric Cardiology Department of FIC, Faisalabad. Period: From January 2013 to June 2019. Material & Methods: All Consecutive patients of Down syndrome who underwent diagnostic Echocardiography at FIC were enrolled. Those having confirmed diagnosis of CHD were included in the study. Results: Out of 321Down syndrome children77.6% (n=249) had CHD and were enrolled for study. Male were 53.8% (n=134) while 46.2% were female (n=115). Majority of patients were below one year of age (57%, n=142). Acyanotic CHD was seen in 83.1 % of patients (n=207) while 16.9 % (n=42) had cyanotic CHD. Isolated cardiac defects was seen in 73.1% of patients (n=182) while 26.9 % had mixed cardiac lesions (n=67). Ventricular septal defect (VSD) was the most common (22.1%, n=55) solitary lesion followed by 14.5% cases of atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), PDA (13.3%) and ASD (8.8%). Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) was seen in 8.4%, AS in 1.2% while TGA, Tricuspid atresia, pulmonary valve stenosis, coarctation and Ebstein anomaly (0.8% each) were less common solitary defects. In mixed cardiac defects VSD with PDA was the most common (n=13, 5.22%) followed by VSD with ASD (n=12, 4.81%) and VSD with RVOTO (n=8, 3.21%). In AVSD cases, RVOTO was present in 2.81% (n=7), PDA with ASD was seen in 2% cases (n=5) while CcTGA, DORV, Pulmonary atresia were least common. Pulmonary Hypertension was present in 54.2% cases of left to right shunt lesions. Conclusion: Incidence of CHD in referred cases of Down syndrome is high (77.6%) at our setup. Acyanotic congenital heart defects are more common. VSD is the most common acyanotic CHD followed by AVSD while TOF is the most common cyanotic CHD.