Profile and Clinical Spectrum of Congenital Heart Defects in NICU

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Congenital heart defects are commonest birth defects and is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in newborns. The current study was done aiming at determining profile and clinical spectrum of various congenital heart diseases (CHD) in neonatal period. Methodology: An observational study was carried out in the NICU, Department of Pediatrics, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh from Feb 2014 to Aug 2015 with the objective to determine profile of various congenital heart defects. All patients with clinical suspicion of congenital heart defect were further evaluated with echocardiography.  Patients who were preterm having PDA and PFO were excluded from cases. Prevalence of various congenital heart defects was calculated. Clinical Spectrum of various congenital heart defects was observed. Observations Total newborns screened 238 and 52 congenital hearts defect were detected. Acyanotic heart defect contributed 67% while cyanotic heart defect contributed 23%. VSD was the most common lesion while TOF (11.5%) was commonest among cyanotic heart defects. Most of the cyanotic heart defects were detected on screening as murmur on auscultation while PDA of bigger size presented as fast breathing. In cyanotic heart, defect classical TOF presented with only murmur while TOF with PA presented as cyanosis. Conclusion: VSD was the most common congenital heart defect detected while Tetralogy of Fallot was commonest among the cyanotic heart defects.