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During an evaluation of heart-disease screening methods among 17,366 Denver parochial school children, congenital heart disease (CHD) epidemiologic data were collected. The CHD prevalence rate was 4.6 cases per 1,000 enrolled and showed no significant variation in the age range studied, between sexes, among three ethnic groups, or among seven socioeconomic strata. Most cases were simple acyanotic defects in persons with few or no symptoms. Atrial-septal defect and valvular pulmonic stenosis were the commonest lesions encountered. Because this study's CHD prevalence rate would have been appreciably lower had only a single screening method been employed and because the generally lower CHD prevalence rates reported by most other studies are related to their simpler screening methods, it is clear that most available CHD prevalence estimates in school children are underestimates.
William E. Morton (Mon,) studied this question.