Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:22:47.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prevalence of congenital heart disease among Palestinian children born in the Gaza Strip

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Mahmoud Zaqout*
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Emad Said Aslem
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Forijat Sadeldin Oweida
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Specialist Pediatric Hospital, Gaza, Palestine
Daniel De Wolf
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
*
Correspondence to: Dr M. A. Zaqout, Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Abd Al Aziz Al Rantisi Pediatric Specialist Hospital, Al Naser Street, Gaza, Palestine. Tel: 00972 5 99 486 707; Fax: 00972 8 2856371; E-mail: dr_mahmoud9@hotmail.com

Abstract

Objective

This study was designed to estimate the birth prevalence of children with congenital heart disease born in the Gaza Strip during 2010 and to compare these with estimates from elsewhere.

Methods

We reviewed the medical records of all children born in 2010 who were diagnosed, treated, and/or followed up in the four paediatric cardiology clinics in the Gaza Strip. Data were also obtained from El Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem and from the Schneider Hospital, Wolfson Medical Center, and Tel HaShomer Hospital in Israel, where we had referred some of our patients for percutaneous or surgical treatment.

Results

A total of 598 children with congenital heart disease were detected among the 59,757 children born alive in the Gaza Strip during 2010, yielding a birth incidence of 10 per 1000 live births. The most frequently occurring conditions were ventricular septal defects (28%), ostium secundum atrial septal defects (17%), patent ductus arteriosus (8.5%), and pulmonary valve abnormalities (8%). In this study, 7% of the children died. The actuarial survival at 6 months and 1 year of age was 94% and 93%, respectively, and remained stable over 18 months of follow-up.

Conclusion

The birth incidence of congenital heart disease in the Gaza Strip in 2010 (10 per 1000) is higher than most estimates in Western Europe (8.2 per 1000 live births) and North America (6.9 per 1000 live births) but is similar to estimates from other parts of Asia (9.3 per 1000 live births).

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Dastgiri, S, Stone, DH, Le-Ha, C, Gilmour, WH. Prevalence and secular trend of congenital anomalies in Glasgow, UK. Arch Dis Child 2002; 86: 257263.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Tagliabue, G, Tessandori, R, Caramaschi, F et al. Descriptive epidemiology of selected birth defects, areas of Lombardy, Italy, 1999. Popul Health Metr 2007; 5: 4.Google Scholar
3. Dolk, H, Loane, M, Garne, E. European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) Working Group. Congenital heart defects in Europe: prevalence and perinatal mortality, 2000 to 2005. Circulation 2011; 123: 841849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Bernier, PL, Stefanescu, A, Samoukovic, G, Tchervenkov, CI. The challenge of congenital heart disease worldwide: epidemiologic and demographic facts. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Pediatr Card Surg Annu 2010; 13: 2634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5. Moons, P, Sluysmans, T, De Wolf, D, et al. Congenital heart disease in 111 225 births in Belgium: birth prevalence, treatment and survival in the 21st century. Acta Paediatr 2009; 98: 472477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Hoffman, JI, Kaplan, S. The incidence of congenital heart disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 2002; 39: 18901900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7. Report of the British Cardiac Society Working Party. Grown-up congenital heart (GUCH) disease: current needs and provision of service for adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease in the UK. Heart 2002; 88 (Suppl 1): i1i14.Google Scholar
8. Khairy, P, Ionescu-Ittu, R, Mackie, AS, Abrahamowicz, M, Pilote, L, Marelli, AJ. Changing mortality in congenital heart disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 2010; 56: 11491157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9. Mitchell, SC, Korones, SB, Berendes, HW. Congenital heart disease in 56,109 births. Incidence and natural history. Circulation 1971; 43: 323332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. van der Velde, ET, Vriend, JW, Mannens, MM, Uiterwaal, CS, Brand, R, Mulder, BJ. CONCOR, an initiative towards a national registry and DNA-bank of patients with congenital heart disease in the Netherlands: rationale, design, and first results. Eur J Epidemiol 2005; 20: 549557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. van der Linde, D, Konings, EE, Slager, MA, et al. Birth prevalence of congenital heart disease worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Coll Cardiol 2011; 58: 22412247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12. Wren, C, O'Sullivan, JJ. Survival with congenital heart disease and need for follow up in adult life. Heart 2001; 85: 438443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13. Bosi, G, Garani, G, Scorrano, M, Calzolari, E. Temporal variability in birth prevalence of congenital heart defects as recorded by a general birth defects registry. J Pediatr 2003; 142: 690698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14. Calzolari, E, Garani, G, Cocchi, G, et al. Congenital heart defects: 15 years of experience of the Emilia-Romagna Registry (Italy). Eur J Epidemiol 2003; 18: 773780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15. Marelli, AJ, Mackie, AS, Ionescu-Ittu, R, Rahme, E, Pilote, L. Congenital heart disease in the general population: changing prevalence and age distribution. Circulation 2007; 115: 163172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16. Hoffman, JI, Kaplan, S, Liberthson, RR. Prevalence of congenital heart disease. Am Heart J 2004; 147: 425439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17. Forrester, MB, Merz, RD. Descriptive epidemiology of selected congenital heart defects, Hawaii, 1986–1999. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 2004; 18: 415424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18. Garne, E. Congenital heart defects – occurrence, surgery and prognosis in a Danish County. Scand Cardiovasc J 2004; 38: 357362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19. Grech, V. Spectrum of congenital heart disease in Malta. An excess of lesions causing right ventricular outflow tract obstruction in a population-base study. Eur Heart J 1998; 19: 521525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20. Robida, A, Folger, GM, Hajar, HA. Incidence of congenital heart disease in Qatari children. Int J Cardiol 1997; 60: 1922.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21. Samanek, M, Voriskova, M. Congenital heart disease among 815,569 children born between 1980 and 1990 and their 15-year survival: a prospective Bohemia survival study. Pediatr Cardiol 1999; 20: 411417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22. Roguin, N, Du, ZD, Barak, M, Nasser, N, Hershkowitz, S, Milgram, E. High prevalence of muscular ventricular septal defect in neonates. J Am Coll Cardiol 1995; 26: 15451548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed