Congestive heart failure in children: a survey of 114 patients

During a period of four years between June, 15, 1988 to one, 15, 1992 one hundred and fourteen patients with congestive heart failure [CHF] were admitted to the pediatric department of Taleghani General Hospital. During the above period, 192 patients with heart disease were hospitalized at this department and CHF was the cause of admission in 59.4% of them. Congenital heart disease [CHD] was the most common cause [65 cases, 57%] of heart failure in this group, followed by rheumatic heart disease [RHD] [26 cases, 23%] and cardiomyopathy [CM] [23 cases, 20%]. Sixty-five patients [57%] were male and forty-nine [43%] were female [M/F = I.3/ 1]. The youngest patient was 2 days old while the oldest one had 13 years. The mean age of the patients was 4.5 years. Forty-nine [43%] were under one year of age and the majority [44/49, 90%] suffered from CHD. All the children with RHD were between 6 to 13 years of age. 14 patients [12%] died. CHD was the most common cause of death. The variations in the pattern of heart failure according to different age groups in this study are compatible with those in other developing countries

Cardiomiopatías / Cardiomyopathies

En 15 años, en el Instituo Nacional de Cardiología y en el Hospital Juárez de México se efectuaron 10,551 autopsias, de las cuales 97 fueron cardiomiopatías. La iniciación e intensidad de las lesiones de las cardiomiopatías alcohólicas variaron según la bebida causante lo que demuestra que no sólo se deben al alcohol. En las cardiomiopatías grávido-puerperales se demostraron lesiones de hipersensibilidad, base del tratamiento inmunosupresor. Excepto la obliterativa, en las demás cardiomiopatías primarias se observó herencia mendeliana, autosómica, dominante de penetrancia variable. Las cardiomiopatías primarias pueden considerarse cardiomiopatías congénitas, lo que explica el fracaso del tratamiento médico y la necesidad del quirúrgico radical, como el trasplante de corazón, ya practicado con buen éxito.