Information about Cardiac Abnormalities In Babies Born With The Low Body Weight

A study of nearly 100,000 infants are born weighing less than 1,500 g (under 3.3 pounds) or delivered before 29 weeks, it was found that the rate of serious congenital heart disease was 8.9 per 1,000 cases, according to Jeremy M. Archer, MD, of the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues.

Conversely, a serious congenital heart disease requiring surgical repair during the first year of life that has been estimated at 2.4 per 1,000 cases among infants born populsi overall survival, the researchers reported online in the February issue of Pediatrics.And compared with infants born with extremely low weight without a serious congenital heart disease with a one-year mortality was 12.7% - the mortality rate of babies born with heart defects was 44% (P <0.0001).

Archer and his colleagues describe a serious congenital heart disease as one of 14 specific lesions or other congenital heart disease requiring surgical or medical treatment in early or hospital at the age of one year

In an accompanying editorial, Christopher Wren, MBChB, PhD, from the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, noted that there has been a dramatic increase in surgical repair technique for many cardiac anomalies are more common in recent decades.

"The improvement in results has focused attention on the malformation remains more of a challenge (such as hypoplastic left heart, abnormalities of other single ventricle, and pulmonary atresia) or in infants with other problems (such as prematurity, low birth weight, and coexist with noncardiac malformations ) puts them at high risk, "said Wren.

The most common heart abnormalities are:

• Tetralogy of Fallot, 18.6%

• Aortic coarctation, 11.5%

• complete atrioventricular canal, 9.1%

• Pulmonary atresia, 8.2%

• Double-outlet right ventricle, 7.6%

Extracardiac also is common, seen in 36% of infants with tetralogy of Fallot, 74% of those with complete atrioventricular canal, and 41% of those with double-outlet right ventricle.

Overall, the adjusted odds ratio for mortality is in low birthweight infants with congenital heart disease (95% CI 5.2 to 7.7) 6.3.

Damage associated with the highest mortality hypoplastic left heart, with a mortality rate of 85.2%, and other single ventricle lesions, with a rate of 84%.