Spectrum of Cyanotic Heart Defects and Their Modes of Presentation at Cardiology Clinic in a Tertiary Care Hospital.

ABSTRACT

Background: Cyanotic Congenital heart defect (CHD) is the high risk group which requires prompt medical attention. Immediate management can drastically alter the natural history otherwise most of the children will succumb to their defect very early in infancy. It is thus important to have reliable information of the profile of various cyanotic CHDs as well as their mode of presentation for the early detection. Methods: The study was carried out in Department of Pediatrics and Center of Cardiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh. All patients referred with complaints or clinical examination suggestive of congenital heart defects were further evaluated with echocardiography. On echocardiography patients having congenital heart defects were included as cases which were further divided into cyanotic and acyanotic heart defects, preterms having PDA and PFO and those with acquired heart defects were excluded. The profile and mode of presentation of various cyanotic CHDs was further described in detail. Results: Acyanotic heart defects were 290(72.50%) of the total heart defects, while the contribution of cyanotic heart defects was 110 (27.50%). Out of all CHDs, VSD was the most common lesion with contribution of 152 (38.00%) cases, while among the cyanotic heart defect, Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) was the most common lesion (18% of total cases). Spectrum of various cyanotic lesions were TOF 65.45%, Single Ventricle 12.72%, TAPVC (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection) 8.18%, TGA(Transposition of Great Arteries) 7.27%, Tricuspid Atresia 3.63%, Ebsteins malformation 1.81% and Truncus Arteriosus 0.90%. Conclusion: Profile of various cyanotic CHDs was similar to the previous studies, however spectrum of various CHDs was quite wide, a large number of cases were missed in infancy and presented late.