Pediatric Heart Disease among Egyptian Children: An Overview of Relative Frequencies and Assessment of Risk Factors in Pediatric Cardiology Clinic of Ain Shams Children’s Hospital

Background: Children’s heart disease is considered a public health problem, and knowing epidemiology of pediatric heart disease is important in determining cause and planning effective prevention and management.
Aim: Estimation the frequency of common cardiac lesions in the Pediatric Cardiology Clinic, in Children’s Hospital, Ain Shams University. Patients and Methods: Retrospective study was conducted over 2 years with total number 407. Classified into a group of 360 cases with congenital heart disease (CHD), 19 cases with cardiomyopathy, 12 cases with rheumatic heart, 7 cases with arrhythmia, and 4 cases with Kawasaki disease.
Results: 71.1% had acyanotic CHD, 16.7% cyanotic CHD, and 2.9% rheumatic heart diseases. 17.1% had VSD, 13.7% had ASD, 8.7% had common AV-canal, 5% had pulmonary stenosis, 7.4% had tetralogy of Fallot, and 7.6% had VSD and ASD. Most of the children were single fetus (82.1%). The positive paternal history of CHD was commonly in patients has ASD (31.2%). Most common diagnosed heart diseases in the age of one month were VSD (12.4%), ASD (14.2%), and tetralogy of Fallot (10.1%). The most common diagnosed heart lesions during the first-year age were VSD (15.2%), common AV-canal (10.9%), pulmonary stenosis (9.4%), and (5.8%) PDA and VSD. The most common diagnosed heart lesion in preschool age patients was PS (50%).
Conclusion: CHD was diagnosed in 88.4% of which 71.1% was acyanotic CHD and 16.7% was cyanotic CHD, while the most common acquired heart diseases were cardiomyopathy 4.6%, and rheumatic heart disease 2.9%.