Clinical epidemiology of congenital heart disease in Nigerian children, 2012-2017

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Date
2018-10-02
Authors
Ekure, E.N.
Kalu, N.
Sokunbi, O.J.
Kruszka, P.
Olusegun-Joseph, A.D.
Ikebudu, D.
Bala, D.
Muenke, M.
Adeyemo, A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) affect ~1% of newborns and are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in children. We present the clinical epidemiology of CHD as seen in a large university medical center in Nigeria. METHODS: Participants were 767 children with echocardiographically confirmed CHD seen over a 5-year period at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. RESULTS: Clinical presentation was often late with just over half (58.1%) presenting in infancy. The male:female distribution was 1:1. The predominant types of cardiac lesion seen were septal defects (43%), conotruncal defects (23.7%), atrioventricular septal defects (9.8%), and right ventricular outflow tract obstruction (7.3%). Cyanotic CHD was seen in 28.4% of cases and the single most common cyanotic CHD was Tetralogy of Fallot (13.4%). Children with cyanotic CHD were older (p = .002), had more severe lesions (p < .0001) and were more likely to have cardiac intervention (p < .0001). Extracardiac malformations were present in nearly one-third of the children. Syndromes associated with CHD were identified in 15.5% of the children and included Down syndrome (11.9%), congenital rubella syndrome (1.0%), and Marfan syndrome (0.7%). CONCLUSIONS: This study is a large case series of CHD from a single site in sub-Saharan Africa utilizing clinical, epidemiological, and developmental considerations. It provides a rich and up-to-date description of the clinical epidemiology of CHD in Nigerian children while yielding data that could be useful for designing genetic, molecular, and biomarker studies.
Description
Staff publications
Keywords
clinical epidemiology , congenital heart disease , etiology , syndromes , Research Subject Categories::MEDICINE::Dermatology and venerology,clinical genetics, internal medicine::Internal medicine::Paediatric medicine
Citation
Ekure EN, Kalu N, Sokunbi OJ, Kruszka P, Olusegun-Joseph AD, Ikebudu D, Bala D, Muenke M, Adeyemo A. Clinical epidemiology of congenital heart disease in Nigerian children, 2012-2017. Birth Defects Res. 2018 Oct 2;110(16):1233-1240.